fast we have an agreement on what to do about the people who have come into this country illegally. i've got a lot of restaurants and hotels and people that have businesses that say i need those immigrants to keep my business open. fine. let's secure the border and then we can work this out. we surely can. we absolutely can. . bye until that's done we are luring people to their deaths. we are luring what one article says, townhall.com, it says that border crossings are up two to three times what they were because of all this talk. and then with the talk that the president has given about how we are not going to be able to secure our border because of the sequester, we are not going to cut golf trips or any of these

other things, but by golly we are not going to protect the border unless you give us amnesty for people that are here. let's secure the border. no, we are going to hold that hostage. we are not going to do our job. we took an oath to do until you grant amnesty to the people here. people need to understand that are here in this congress what it does to those who did everything lawfully to come into this country. who have followed every part of the law. it is absolutely demoralizing to most of those people to have talk of amnesty to people who didn't follow the law as they did. once we have a secured border, not held hostage, but just do the job that the oath was taken to do, once that's done, let as

talk about a pathway to a green card or pathway to being here as a permanent legal resident. a pathway to citizenship needs to have people who believe in the rule of law. because if that is not the case, we will become like the nations those peopeft because they couldn't find jobs, they didn't have adequat freedom, there was graft and corruption because they did not believe in the rule of law as a nation. so they had to leave that nation, come to our nation. don't destroy a nation that for the most part believes in the rule of law and following the law. and that includes me and other members of congress. we need to show respect for those who follow the law and for those who say, well, it's christian to help all immigrants. it's christian to help all

people. to love all people. just as christ did. but as a government, we need to make sure this country is going to be here, and we cannot do that unless we make sure that people here, immigrants who have come in, people who are native americans, those who are here in america, are protected against all enemies who may come in and want to destroy us. that's part of our job. i want to make a point about gun control sin cloture was voted on down the -- since cloture was voted on down the hall. i have not always been terribly complimentary of our friend, senator mcconnell, down the hall, but he made some very, very important points that people need to understand about what's being proposed for gun control. under what's been proposed in the senate for gun control, and

i'm quoting from senator mcconnell, he has it right, an uncle giving his nephew a hunting rifle for christmas, that's someone who under the law being pushed in the senate will be a criminal. someone else who would be a criminal under the laws being pushed in the senate are a niece giving her aunt, he says aunt, or her grandmother, even, a handgun for protection. another criminal under the senate proposal would be a cousin loaning another cousin his hunting rifle if the loan occurs just one day before the beginning of hunting season. another criminal under the proposal would be one neighbor loaning another a firearm so his wife can protect herself while the husband is away.

senator mcconnell said the people i'm describing are not criminals, they are neighbors, friends, and family. and the scenarios, he says, i'm describing are not fanciful. they happen countless times in this country. as he says, this bill would outlaw these transfers and make people i mentioned criminals. any time a bill is rushed to the floor before people have a chance to read it, examine it, amend it, discuss it, it's not going to bele it good for the american people in all things. thomas jefferson was not part of the constitutional convention. he was part of the continental congress. in fact did most of the drafting of the declaration of independence.

but he wasn't there for the drafting of the constitution itself. he wrote a letter a year or so after the -- he wrote this letter after the constitution was promulgated, an incredible document, but he said if i could add one thing to the constitution, it would be a requirement that every law had to be on file for one year minimum, so everyone could read it, everyone could make comments on it, you'd have plenty of chances to think of amendments that might make it better in a stronger, more effective law. have it on file for a year. that may not have been such a bad idea if it had been included. as incredibly, and i believe divinely inspired as the constitution was, so many of the founders saying they got their inspiration for provisions in the constitution from the old

testament, but as fantastic as it was, it was written down by men who make mistakes. this congress better not put into law a gun control bill or an immigration bill or any other important bill that has no had adequate scrutiny, because if that happens, americans will suffer just as surely as they are beginning to as obamacare is being implemented around the country. and as people are being turned away from treatment. though they were promised, you like your doctor you can keep it, you like your health insurance, you can keep it. now they found that was completely untrue. and joe wilson was right, it's not true what was said about the

affordable care act, people have lost their doctor, they have lost their insurance, that will continue to occur. and we are going to destroy the best health care in the history of man. their doctors, medical historians who indicated that they think it was just after the turn of 1900, maybe 1910 or so, when for the first time in human history a person had a better chance of getting well after seeing a doctor than they did of getting worse after seeing a doctor. get your mind around that. for thousands of years of the existence of man where we have recorded history of man, and you think about only in the last hundred years have you had a better chance of getting well after seeing a doctor than

getting worse? and you think about how far we have come. now we are radically going to change health care so people can't get the treatment they once did? we needed to reform health care. it needed reform, but it didn't need a government takeover, and it still doesn't. and the reason for that is that life is important. life has value. and i'm going to read a story, won't read the whole thing, that was "new york daily news" from ursday, april 11, ashley baldwin said she saw the puppies moving on five occasions after their spines were snipped. the doctor is charged in the deaths of these puppies and in

the death of the mother. the gruesome testimony at the house of horrors trial of dr. kermit gozz nell continued on thursday with -- gosnell continued on thursday with two former employees describing scenes that strained the imagination. ashley baldwin, who began working at the cash only clinic in west philadelphia when she was just 15, said that she routinely assisted gosnell with these procedures on five different occasions she saw puppies moving following the procedure. in one case baldwin, who is now 22, and a dog owner, testified that she witnessed a puppy screeching after the procedure. she said they looked like regular puppies. when asked about a particular puppy, described in court as puppy a, who the prosecution contends was nearing its birth

date, baldwin recalled how large the unborn puppy was following the procedure. the chest was moving, she testified thursday tgosnell trained his employees to cut the necks of the puppies to sever their spinal cords, both baldwin and linda williams, another former employee, testified on wednesday. williams testified she saw her former boss snip the necks of ore than 30 puppies. gosnell's attorney argued his client did not kill any puppies by snipping their spines, they were already in the death throws because of the -- throes because of the drugs he had given the bothering dog. he's charged with first degree murder in the deaths of seven puppies, as well as murder in

the death of the mother undergoing his procedure. the reason the mainstream media has not reported this story and continues to refuse to report this story about little innocent ppies having their necks cut and killed after they are born alive is because they are not puppies. they are human beings. they are boys and girls. and it doesn't fit the agenda of the mainstream media to report on little boys and little girls whose spinal cords are cut by a doctor. they would be sure to report if these were puppies, but they're not. they are little boys and girls. our a father who held

, st child, very prematurely t. and heard her gasping for air -- hands, and heard her gasping for air, heard knowingrts to live, and that we did all we could to help her live, and that she's 29 ars old, i can't imagine is it hinking not only not a big deal, but it's not worth reporting when a doctor

snips the neck of someone's little child. and with that, mr. speaker, i yield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair lays before the house the following enrolled bill. the clerk: senate 716, an act to modify the requirements under the stop act regarding online access to certain financial disclosures statements and related forms. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy f january 3, 2013, the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from the district of columbia, ms. norton, for 30 minutes. ms. norton: thank you, mr. speaker. i rush to get to the floor before the gavel went down this afternoon because this is the marks when which

women had to work as long as a man works in order to get the pay that is equivalent to the pay of a man. during 12 months. notice what month we are in. this is april. so we are talking about four plus months beyond the 2 months that a man gets to work, has to work, -- beyond the 12 months that a man gets to work, has to work, to have the salary it takes a woman 16 months plus. but it was not that alone, mr. speaker, it's some figures i discovered in doing some research.

and of course there is the pressure i think all of us should feel if congress has any -- has anything to add to this discussion that would move what no forward a position for women and women's pay in the work force and -- in at least the last 10 years. there is pending before the congress at least two bills, there is a petition, a discharge petition, that is already out to compel the house to vote on the paychecks fairness act. that act has not moved forward in the house though it has been

filed now for a number of years but i believe that the most recent data would compel everyone to believe that if there is anything this house can do, this is the time to do it. i looked at what progress we have made since i chaired the equal employment opportunity commission beginning in the late 1970's with never a thought that i'd be a member of the house of representatives. i've looked at the decade of the 1980's, that's about the time that i left the eeoc, and what i found was steady, yes, incremental but steady progress. oving, for example, from 60.2%

. 1980 to 69.9% that means about 10 percentage points movement in 10 years. then i looked at the years beginning in 1990 until today and it appears to be taking any twice as long to move distance during this latter 20-year period than it took during the 10-year period beginning in 1980. that ought to make all of us stop and wonder what is at work. look look at 1990, when we

ike we're solidly into the 70's, women making 70%, the exact figure was 17.-- was 71.6% of what men earned that figure fwradgeulely went up you get to 2000 from 1990 and you gone only from essentially 70%, let's say 71.6%o 73.7% -- let's say to 73.7%. the rate is what has slowed but what is more serious, 77% seems to be the unlucky number for women's pay in our country. we are at 77%, sometimes 77 and a little more, but basically 77% of what a man earns since 2005.

what that means is no progress whatsoever. now, incremental progress was never enough, particularly when you consider that more women today work than men, but a slow -- a slow pace of growth compared to future years is unacceptable. what is the reason for that? the most recent data shows an actual widening of the gap between men and women. for example, in 2012, women who work full time, we're talking about full-time workers, earned 80.9%. almost 81% of what men earned.

that was in terms of weekly pay. t that was a drop, a drop of more than two percentage points from the year before, 82.2%. now these are full-time women's earnings at a time when women considerably outrank men in the number who graduate from college, for example. ow, the annual earnings look even worse, because that's where the 77% figure comes in. where women lag even further behind if you look annually and you get 77% of what men earned. that becomes a figure we almost know by heart. that's a figure we ought to know one year and then we have to move on to another year.

so what we have, if you want to see what that means in dollars and cents is a woman who works full time averages $691 a week in 2012, that was less than she had earned in 2011. man earning -- men's earnings in that same week were $854, compared to $691 for a woman. what is most important is not the difference in the men and women's pay but that men had a small gain over what they had earned in 2011, whereas women were going in the opposite direction. as we look at why this would occur, i look further into,

well, where is the jobs, why not look at job growth, perhaps we're not seeing growth in women's occupations. one of the great problems, of course, was women's -- with women's pay is that although they are getting out of college, women are still employed largely in stereotypic women's jobs and because those jobs have been women's jobs forever, for so long that they are labeled as women's jobs, they have acquired wage of their own that reflects discrimination against women. job growth, if we look at it in the last year, has been in retail, in catering, and in minimum wage jobs. that in and of itself, of course, may tell us why women's wages have not been growing at

the rate we would like. they may be preparing themselves in other fields, but very often when we talk about women's wages, we are not talking about the average woman. and since that average woman's wage is essential for family earnings today, we've got to look at who we are talking about. the paycheck fairness act is so modest that it doesn't even pretend to go at this problem but it is the kind of bill that you would think we would have a bipartisan majority before. the paycheck fairness act, which we're trying to get out of the house, simply updates the equal pay act, which it was my honor to enforce as chair of the equal

employment -- equal opportunity -- equal employment opportunity commission, the so called e.p.a., equal pay act, was the first of the civil rights acts and it guarantees equal pay for equal work. the kind of guarantee that if you asked every hundred americans if they were for equal pay for equal work you would find 99.9% of them would say they were and the other -- and any falling off of that, whatever it would be, would be because they didn't understand the question. but if you're talking about a bill that was passed more than -- well, now, 50 years ago, you can imagine it does not meet today's economy and so the

modest changes here to allow class actions, for example, to ensure that a woman could discuss her wages without being fired, today if you discuss your wages openly, that is -- there's nothing to protect you against being let go, secrecy in wages is part and parcel of the problem. women's wages, of course, have suffered, particularly in this recession, because a disproportionate number of public jobs have not come back, jobs as -- we see teachers being laid off, for example. we see social workers being laid off. you'll see more of that because of the sequester. the sequester is going to be handed down in programs to states and cities and it means

that the programs that were available are not going to be readily available and you will begin to see these women's jobs suffer even more. i am very concerned that we have been looking at what progress women have been making without noting that they have been making no progress. and that is the problem i see. i don't pretend that any one statute will make that progress occur, i do understand that there are a set of related phenomena involved here. but i do not believe we can leave on the table our responsibility for moving to do what we can as women become not

only equal in the work force but also the majority, men are opting out of the work force, some can opt out because they have pensions, some of them are opting out because they go on disability from having worked, women seem not to be opting out but opting in. the paycheck fairness act gives some muscle to the old equal pay act, in some ways it's fallen into a certain amount of disuse because it doesn't meet what is needed, still, of course, an important statute, but it remains a statute that, like any of our civil rights statutes, needs to be looked at, often to see in what ways it can be mproved.

in addition to the paychecks fairness act, with senator harkin, i have sponsored the fair pay act. that act differs from the very important paycheck fairness act because it seeks to get at a rudimentary problem in the work force, and that is that women are captured in these women's occupations that of their very nature have built in discrimination. for example, 2/3 of white women and three quarters of african-american women work in just three areas of the economy taxi ical, service, and jobs. it will take a more aggressive

strategy to break through the old, the ancient habits of the workplace that's been there since women began to work, which has sered them into these jobs these ared them into jobs, which would -- and this would require they be paid comparably. there may not be a huge number of such jobs but the states have often found such jobs and made them comparable in pay, often at the urging of trade union, they have sat down and done studies that have made it clear that you can make comparable pay adjustments that improve, the reason that jobs which are different but comparable are not paid the same is because of discrimination, and that's what you'd have to show, that you can

in fact make up for that over a period of time as a number of states have done simply by changing the pay of women over that period of time. it is one thing to mark this week as a week where we are still on 77%. it's quite another to make clear that that 77% is a figure we have been stuck at, stuck on now with absolutely no movement for more than 10 years. the paycheck fairness act, moving it with a discharge petition, as we are trying to do to at least force a vote on it, would make people think about the figures i just discussed. because if they think about them, i think most members would want to do something about them.

we are not preparing women for the inevitable retirement that will come without pension, without leave, and with too little pay. but more their pay begins to reflect the pay of what is often their mates who graduated from college or high school at about the same time, with comparable skills, it the greater will be their security as they age and less the toll on taxpayers to take care of them. it was with great pride that i chaired the equal employment opportunity commission in the late 1970's and saw some progress that began to be made . the 1970's and 1980's there's no reason for the showdown -- slowdown when you consider we have been stuck on 77% even before the recession.

it is not the great recession hat has--- has set women back. it is the failure in legislation and it is the failure in the workplace itself to treat women's pay as the equivalent of the pay of men. i hope women will not be discouraged as they now are finishing high school and college in greater numbers and greater rate than their male counterparts. we can only hope they will not be discourage the when they -- discouraged when they see their pay does not equal what their education has been, but during this week when we noted that it earnwomen 16-plus weeks to -- sorry, 16-plus months to earn

what a man earned in 12 months, i ask that we look behind these numbers, put a face on them, because the face is the woman who lives next door, the face is your wife, the face is your daughter who is going to come out of college loaded,'s most re today, at least 25%, with 5% of their education having been secured through loans. to maximize the time, effort, energy, and ambition that goes into pursuing education regardless of gender so that we can begin to move at least incrementally again. women have been more than aware that their own progress has come

slowly. they are not content to make no progress. and if we look at the last 12 years, essentially what we see is no progress. i'm not sure what kind of a goal to put on progress that should be made. decade ly look at the where some considerable progress was made and where 10 percentage points of progress was made over 10 years to say if we can do that once, we surely should be able to do it again. place to begin would be to sign the discharge petition so that the paycheck, fairness act could be brought to the floor. it needs 218 signatures. it currently has 192 co-sponsors. and maybe more by this point.

it did as of thursday. we have to find action to take individual women, perhaps will be taking such action in their own work forces, the whole notion of lean in, that is to say go and ask for the pay that you are entitled to, is a step that i would, of course, advise, but i recognize that an problem in-- endemic women's progress across the board calls for more than we idual action mark as usually do in april the time and month it has taken for women to achieve what men have achieved in far less time, in this time four months more to earn what a man earned in 12 months, i hope

that that figure at a time when women's pay is stuck at 77% or so as it has been for 10 or 12 years now, that we will be inclined to use this week not to commemorate, not even to recognize, but to activate us to move women whose incomes are vital not only to their own families but to our country. and if we do that, then by the time we reach this point, perhaps next april, we will have a different story to tell. i am pleased to yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back.

ms. norton: mr. speaker, i move that the house do now adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly, the house stands adjourned until noon on monday next

he will start with the big one mention this week, the agreement made by senator joe manchin and pat toomey, that would expand the background check to just about every commercial sale and exempt most private sales. a lot of senators said this was something that they needed in order to vote to proceed to formal debate on the actual legislation. it is expected that that proposal would have enough to read the question is, what other amendments will be considered. ? we believe the controversial assault weapons ban will be proposed. there is a proposal by senators leahy and susan collins about gun trafficking, knowingly buying it -- buying a weapon for somebody who is not supposed to have one. who knows? we might see reciprocity of concealed carry permits across the country. maybe some changes to how the government a's for and supports until health programs throughout the country. we expect weeks of debate on this him at least the balance of april and maybe intimate.

-- maybe into may. ost: ed o'keefe, tell us about this first step, this amendment by senator mansion and senator pat toomey pennsylvania -- how does it get included? guest: they will bring it up tuesday. they will have debate on it. they will have an up or down vote on it. it is believed, now that the text is out there, that they will have enough support to proceed. both senators said they were concerned about infringement on second amendment rights. that is seen as a signal to like-minded senators of both parties to say, look him a there is not -- and not in here that we can support. we have made sure that there is

nothing in here that would make it difficult for somebody to uy a weapon. we are also pushing the fact that it would make it much more equitable for licensed gun dealers, versus people that sell guns at gun shows. there are certain things that happen at gun shows that must happen at a gun shop. they are trying to equal the playing field. that is seen as appealing. host: as majority leader harry reid given any indication on whether there would be a limit on the number of amendments? guest: that is the big unknown. there were enough republicans that voted for this that he is going to allow just about everything. i think he understands that not only are republicans interested in that, but there are enough democrats interested in that. guns is an issue that breaks down really more over geography than ideology. it has a lot of democrats facing reelection in a rural and midwestern states, guys like mike i ditched -- mary

landrieu of louisiana, mark begich of alaska, they need to be able to show their constituents that they were part of a fair and open and exhaustive debate on this issue so that just about every single proposal out there is considered, and in the end, depending on what is in the final bill, they will cast a vote. i think he understands that enough democrats will say, you have to allow certain votes on some of the controversial amendments on either side of the issue in order to get my vote. he has said most of this week come if you have an idea to strengthen or weaken this law, ring it forward. but if republicans start to present amendments that are seen as poison pills or ways to strike down most of the law, then you might see democrats step in and say, let's not do that. host: you mentioned they will come from both sides of the process. senator reid said that we will see an assault weapons ban. what do expect to happen with that? we expect it will not get more -- much more than 40 votes. the other controversial proposal that is sought by gun-control groups is one that

would limit the size of ammunition magazines and a lot of states have passed limits. new york, connecticut, colorado, maryland. federal ban or restriction on the size is likely going to fail. at least those democrats supporting those measures and the various gun-control groups can say, we tried. he president has asked for that. everybody will remember his dramatic turn during the state of the union were he said all of these gumpert -- gun proposals should deserve a vote. caller: we see -- host: we see in congress relatives of victims killed at sandy hook going door-to-door in talking to members of congress, being present in the senate chamber. how is that momentum going to be sustained, or will it be sustained? guest: i believe it was no more

han 8-10 family members of victims. a sister, a spouse of one of the educators. they have been vocal from the start. given that there are weeks ago and given that there are so many incidents across the country that have compelled the victims family members to come orward, it is likely that we will see rounds of them come every week. there are enough groups and enough incidents and enough people interested in talking that we will likely see them. i suspect when we get closer to final passage, you will see a dramatic showing of the families of newtown victims. they camped outside the chambers in connecticut when the state legislature in connecticut passed their ill. i suspect they will do something similar here because

it was such a dramatic emonstration of their push for this route to put himself in front of lawmakers, if they can do that to some extent, they will. senator blumenthal and senator murphy, both of them of connecticut, they have said the most powerful advocate for this are the advocates of those children -- also the parents of high d a pendleton -- hadiya pendleton. when the parents come forward and try to talk to senators, that seems to work. a lot of senators have taken the meeting. even harry reid said, i do not want to meet with these people, because i knew it would be a difficult meeting, but i did. they made their point. some of the meetings have gone very well. others have been a little more emotional. host: we sell republicans voting to move forward. some of them did vote to proceed. do we expect to see any sort of oral filibuster him any sort of stalling on the senate floor? guest: that is what we were expecting this week. there was a threat from at least 14 senate republicans led by senator mike lee of utah, marco rubio of florida, mitch mcconnell, the senate minority

reader. they threatened to filibuster this, but so quickly did 16 republicans come forward to say, no, i will not stand in the way of doing this, that they dropped the plan. we dissipated last night they might try to force 30 hours of debate on proceeding to the actual bill. these are the crazy procedures we have. they said, no, go ahead. at some point, depending on how the amendment process goes, we suspect they will try to do something to read again, the longer harry reid allows for it to go, the more commitments he perceived -- he allows to have on the up or down votes. the longer they are likely to old off. mike lee has said, all we are trying to do is to make sure that that there is thoughtful onsideration of this him and second amendment rights are not infringed upon.

if that happens, perhaps he will hold off. jeff flake, republican from arizona, said, for me, this is about process. harry reid told me there would be an open process. i trust there will be. as long as there is, i am all or proceeding. >> student cam prize winner tucker hemphill asked the president to consider in renewable alternative energy sources. >> the most important thing we can do is to make sure we control our own energy. that is why we doubled the clean industry production. all of these things have contributed to us lowering our oil imports to the lowest in 15 years. >> mr. obama, i agree with you. so let's catch a wave for

enewable energy. you say you want a revolution, well, you know, we all want to change the world >> all energy is derived from the sun. mankind only knows how to use .02% of the sun energy on earth. >> the oceans store 70% of the sun's energy on earth. mankind must develop the technology in order to take advantage of this wonderful esource. so what is renewable energy? >> renewable energy to me is different type of energy that can be harnessed from natural

processes which can be harnessed over and over again. it is not a one-shot deal. > what are the main types of renewable energy? >> the primary types are nuclear, solar, wind, and wave energy. >> which source seems to be the best? >> in my view, wave energy. it has fewer downsides than the others. solar, obviously, is dependent on cloudiness, the sun. wind energy is valuable, but it also leaves a significant footprint on the environment. there are also issues related to birds' deaths coming from wind energy. in terms of nuclear energy, we still have not found a solution in terms of a byproduct waste that is produced. wave energy does not generally have those drawbacks. >> if this great resource exists, why haven't we used it?

>> air travel was 100 years ago. when the wright brothers were working in north carolina to get the first plane off the ground, people feared traveling in the air. 100 years from now, our ancestors will look at wave energy just as we look at air travel today, as a necessary commodity, particularly at a ime when we have low energy. >> today, i got an exclusive offer to tag along with brian cunningham and his team to test out a prototype at the united states naval academy. the barge is simple, robust, and can submerge and hover at 60 feet below the surface. turbulence is substantially reduced. according to brian cunningham and his team, the results were better than they had hoped.

so how does wave energy work? wave energy is the result of the up-and-down motion of the ocean water along up-and-down stretches of the beat. this oscillation creates electricity between the coils. the barges are anchored at approximately 150 feet of water depth to harness energy, which can propel the barges. what are the bad things about using wave energy? >> the only downside i've come up with is a slight impediment to navigation. that will be easily overcome by radar detection or lights. >> the amount of infrastructure it would take to build and capture that energy would be a

very significant cost. the payback in terms of recouping your benefits could be very long. initially, wave energy obviously relies on the ocean. there are large section of the country without any oceanfront. the cost to transmit that power from the coast and build the nfrastructure to transmit it is not insignificant. so those costs are the primary shortcomings of wave energy. >> i rise today in strong opposition to gas drilling of the oregon coast. i question why would we risk our pristine coast. why we would subject our isheries and visitor base to this dangerous, bp-style disaster in oregon waters? e should focus in generating

local jobs. we can create these local jobs by investing in the energy industries of the next century that are uniquely suited to the oregon coast -- wave energy and next-generation offshore wind. oregon can be the saudi arabia of renewable wave energy. wave energy depends on two things -- big waves and consorts suited to export those waves. oregon has both. organ is the best place in the orld where these two factors come together. >> the reason that we should consider using wave energy as an alternative for compliment to solar or wind energy is that ave energy is eight times that of solar energy and 14 times that of wind. it is also more consistent than solar or wind. in short -- more bang for the buck. the benefits of wave energy is that it is more cost effective, creates jobs, and is more consistent than wind or solar.

the oceans of the world are reported to store 2 trillion watts of renewable energy. this means that if you were to assign the actual u.s. consumer average in 2009 to this energy collected, it could be valued at $225 million per hour or billions of dollars worldwide. we can build an urgent, proper commitment to take advantage of this underutilized resource. whether we choose to use this abundant resource -- that is the decision for the government to make. i strongly believe that president obama should consider taking advantage of this resource in 2013 because it is an abundance that we are not recognizing. >> congratulations to all of

the winners in this year's student cam competition. to see more winning videos, go to studentcam.org. the re now and environment. general mccarthy testified yesterday during her confirmation hearing. e currently serves aed the e.p.a. administrative assistant for air and aviation. this two hour portion of the hearing begins during opening statements starting with maryland senator ben car den. >> we're going to move forward and i'm going to read the list. if there is any disagreement with this list, please let me know. we'll go back and forth. carper, fisher, murker, card den, wish and ewe dall.

>> i'm not on the list. >> didn't you speak already? >> we're still opening. >> then i did. >> as a matter of fact, i personally remember it well. and it was good for my standpoint. so we're moving to senator carper. >> thanks madam chair. welcome, it's nice to see you which i want to say to start off to my colleagues, my lifestyle before i came here to work with all of you was as some of you know i got to be governor of my state for eight years. the tradition in delaware is you get elected and have you the opportunity to govern with the team that you choose. i think everyone i nominated asked to be a cap net keck tear or division director during those eight years. to a person, they were all confirmed and went on to serve.

i said to the legislature, let me have the team that i think will help me and the administration served our state well and god bless them they d. hold us accountable for our results. >> please go ahead. >> i worry about executive branch swiss cheese. don't care whether you have a republican governor, george w. bush, republican president or democratic president, this is not a good situation for our country. we had a hearing a couple of days ago for o.m.b. director. we have an acting director. there are two deputy o.m.b.

directors that are vacant. we have a position that hand ms regulation and we have an acting person in place. we -- part of that is responsibility of the administration. they have an obligation to give us good names. tohave an obligation consider those names. if somebody -- i was once backed by clinton to serve, and the process as a sitting governor, you have to go through to be vetted, is awful. i hated it. what we asked people to do, good people, whether george bush or barack obama, we asked good people to go through an unpleasant experience and sometimes they have to put their life on hold, and the deck risk

having their integrity impugned. this is a good woman. stuff sure, weon compared khamenei people come forward -- how many people come forard that have served four republican governors? for myself, i want people to be in this position that are smart, pragmatic, use common sense, to try to do what is right. this is the situation we face bush regulation the administration thought to put in place dealing with air, they were turned back over to the courts, every one. they said you got it wrong. the reason there is all this stuff in her lap is because of that. we have got to get it right.

meetings that stick with us, that have stuck with us. i want to share a story with my republican colleagues. it was my first term in the senate. along with george bush, i was trying to lead the clean air subcommittee, and we had a bunch of ceo's. thee was one guy from southern utility, i do not know, he said we had been talking for an hour or so come here is what he said -- he said, look, tell us what the rules will be, give us a reasonable amount of time, and flexibility and get out of the way. that is what he said. we need predictability and certainty. and we need it with respect to this position. we need somebody who will help

develop what the rules will ility, ande flexib then get us out of the way. gina mccarthy will be a good partner with us. i think she will do a good job for us and be responsive and used her pragmatism and common sense. let's get this done, and i do not think you will regret it. thank you. >> i really thank you for that, well said. we have a slightly different list from the republicans. i will go through it again to make sure that everybody is treated fairly. we will move to senator fischer, session, udall. everybody happy? all right.

>> thank you, and i am happy to be here today. thank you, ms. mccarthy, for being here and your willingness to serve the public. share this opportunity to with you concerns of my constituents. as you and i spoke a lot in nebraska, agriculture is our number one industry. we are a people who are proud to see the world barrett our success is the direct result of careful store -- stuart jeb of our natural resources, which we depend on for a livelihood. we hold dear these resources, our land and water, because these are our heritage and legacy to future generations. we have made tremendous gains in production agriculture, producing more while using less land, water, less energy, plus less pesticides. these improvements are made because the application of new

technology and conversation practices. they're not the result of a permanent or a mandate or a paper or a work requirement from the federal bureaucracy. they are the result of that cooperation between producers and local university accenture and educators and conservation agencies. these are folks who farmers' trust to help them implement science-based solutions that improved efficiency and reduce our environmental impact. we believe that local natural resource management is more successful than epa's top-down command and control federal approach. we believe that local natural resource management is more successful than epa's continual approach in that area. we find that epa's proposed expansion of the clean water act authority is alarming.

also of concern is us is the increasing cost of compliance with environmental regulations for nebraska's public power utilities, which we spoke about. that does increase the monthly electricity bills fall all nebraskans. our state is poised to work to make reasonable and cost- effective changes that result in meaningful environmental improvement. what we cannot tolerate his failure to consider an economic impact, mandates of controls that are not commercially available, and it regulatory uncertainty. regulations must be made on sound, publicly available science, subject to a thorough cost-benefit analysis, and promulgated through a transparent notice and comment process. i would ask that my full statement be entered into the

record, and, ms. mccarthy, i appreciate you being here. i look forward to questioning you about many of these concerns. thank you. >> senator, thank you very much. senator? >> thank you very much, and thank you so much for being willing to put yourself forward in this public service capacity. i appreciate it. bye wanted to start recognizing that this conversation is much broader than your background. many of us are extraordinarily impressed with the skills you have developed in the battles you have undertaken. but obviously there is a broad conversation about how we make the environment and the economy work together for a better america, better quality of life, and more and better jobs. in that context, this will be a one lost throughout

service in this type of role. many inthe opinion of this room that one of the most important jobs in our country is to tackle pressing -- the pressing environmental crises of our time, climate change. the 12 hottest years on our planet have come in the last 15. the statistics of that happening randomly are quite frankly miniscule beyond calculation. i look at it through the lens of my farming and my timber community. i just came from a county in the south part of oregon, and massive wildlife refuge and farming community, dependent upon irrigation, and they had their worst-ever year for water in 2010. they had their second-worst year in 2001, and there was a huge battle in the state this year.

this year they are 50% below. that is one example of the impact of the changing climate. in various parts of oregon, which have large beetle in infestations and the winters are not killing off them as much as they used to, a big impact on timber, and the drier years produced a lot more fires. we had a fired the size of rhode island in oregon last year. we had more acres burned in oregon than we have had in 100 years. land, and the drier conditions and the firefighting results in the forest service having a difficult time having the funds to plant timber sales, which come bucket the problem because forests and healthy thinning in our federal forests, which makes us more susceptible to fire. meanwhile, will get farming and

timber. the fishingturn to sidekick that a big oyster industry on the coast of oregon, and the whiskey creek hatchery produces the oyster seed for western farmers, and it has had trouble in a slight change of the assocation of the ocean, and small change, and if you have a small change affecting shell formation in very young oyster see to it, you can think about how different food chains will be impacted, and that is not a pretty picture. this is the state of oregon. if we look more broadly, we see so much going on, and some of my colleagues have spoken to concern about the natural resource industry and the extraction of coal. quite rightly, i am concerned about my fishing community. like timber community. my farming community. all of which are impacted by the strategies we employ, and

america should lead in taking on this challenge. many of these issues that i will return to, wrestling with specific issues, i want to mention how poor and the superfund cleanup is particularly in portland harbor. i continue to look forward to working with you after your confirmation to pursue policies to get us out of the planning stage and into the implementation stage. thank you. >> aycock, senator carey >> thank you, and thank you for making yourself available to the committee and for meeting with me early on in the process. i have said the position of epa administrator is one of the most important and consequential any administration. despite a weak economy and high unemployment, the administration uses epa to push regulations that i fear will port more

americans out of work. and at the same time achieve minimal results. i'm afraid these harmful regulations will continue. because of the significance of the decisions, transparency is critical. as taxpayers are asked to shoulder the burden of excess of regulations. if you and i disagree on policy, let's not hide information. show us the data on the sides. as you and i discussed in our first meeting, i have concerns regarding the national ambient air quality standards for ozone. desoto county, mississippi, has been dealing with this as are many counties across the u.s. desoto county is a suburban county, very clean, it has the misfortune of being south of memphis and interstate 40. i was disappointed in the 2012 decision to designate desoto

county as a major contributor to poor air quality in the region. i do not believe that is fairer. as epa moves forward with regulations, many are concerned more stringent rules could hinder economic growth and -- in a non-compliant counties. i was interested to see that scherer's chart on smog alerts in her home state of california. 1976, it was very high. this year it was 0, no smog alerts print this should be an occasion to celebrate the success of current policies. rather than to advocate for more restrictive policies, are to get below zero, 100% success on smog alerts. in the case of many relations, it is important to afford deference to the knowledge and

authority and expertise of state governments. a strong consideration should be given to regional, variability and differences, between states and within states, where regulations are developed. the one-size-fits-all approach is not always the best but you cannot particularly when jobs are threatened for no significant environmental gain. with regard to coal, i agree with senator burress appeared excessive rules affecting our plants pose a serious threat to america's economic competitiveness. because mississippi has diverse fields and power generation technology options, including coal, our state can offer adequate rates below national averages and attract more jobs- creating investment. the president said in 2008 we cannot develop clean-coal technology. epa needs to help make good on that promise.

's regulatory assault on cold does not diminish the influence of foreign energy producers for families and correct businesses. with regard to water, our next administrator will oversee the implementation of more than just air regulations. he would be the primary decision makers are how to regulate activities related to chemical manufacturing, farming activities, private property rights. i am interested to hear how you plan to report water issues and water regulations that could have a severe impact on job creation. this would include burdensome permits for forced roads but the element of nutrient standards for the gulf of mexico, how you would exercise the veto authority under section 404 of the clean water act and if you believe the pre-emptive the to know of any project, before it goes to the process, is appropriate. these issues are critical for mississippi and the entire

country, and for the well-being of all americans and their ability to earn a living. i look forward to hearing .nquiry he the focus should be on efficient and safe waste the life of america also abundant resources, not regulatory decisions get hurt jobs and blocked affordable and a tree. . >> a lot to say since we have so up with a newcame rule. the way it will work, whoever is here at the time the battle goes down in their chairs, that will be the order by seniority after the gavel goes down, then the early bird world. is that ok? go to carden, sessions, udall -- others. >> the key.

i have noticed that rule was implemented only after i got a chance to speak. [laughter] i would note that for the record. >> here is my answer -- anyone who cares about the future is a hero. because you change the rules for the future, we thank you for that. let's move to senator cardin. >> i am honored to be the first person recognized under the new rules. that need welcome miss mccarthy to our committee, and thank you for your public service, and i think your family. and are stepping forward in an extremely important role, and as you can see by the members interest in this herrington it has a lot members' interests, and that is courageous of you and we thank you. this is extremely important public service and we appreciate the abundance to serve. epa has a proud history. since 1970, bipartisan support revenue agency's

labeled the environmental protection and this is because we want to protect the environment for future generations, that is the responsibility. clean air act, the clean water act, who were bipartisan actions taken because we recognize we have a responsibility to american families, to protect their health and protect the environment for future generations. as senator boxer pointed out, that cost-benefit ratios of are well documented. the cost associated with implementing the statutes and the benefits wes receive from clean water and clean air. in maryland we are proud of what we have been able to do as a state. we enacted in 2006 the maryland and the suitr act, claimed it would cost jobs, it did the reverse. it created jobs in our state, and it provided a healthier environment for the people in

maryland. the problem is, like delaware, we are downwind, and if we do not get help from the federal government in enforcing clean air standards, even though we could do the best job possible in our state, our people will still be vulnerable because of inaction in other states. that is what we are concerned about carper enforcement of national mall. it helps us, even though our state has done the right thing. we have families with children with asthma, and we know what happens when the clean air standards are not as strict as they need to be. we have families where people have heart diseases that are kept by the quality of our air. which of waterborne disease problems in our state because of the quality of the walker creek i think the colleagues on this committee have heard me talk freely about the chesapeake bay, and we had a chance to talk about the chesapeake bay. the bay is a multi- jurisdictional body of water, and all have come together in an effort to recognize the

importance of the chesapeake bay as a way of life for us in our community, but also its national significance, and we have to work together. the federal government is an important partner, and we have made a lot a progress. let me make it clear -- the baltimore inner harbor today is unfit for human contact, about 73% of the time. there is a lot more we need to do. we're not there yet. we need your help, and we have established programs to deal with the development in agriculture, storm runoff, but there's also the issue of climate change that affects the tests of the bay and the people of my state. the people who are trying to hold on to that last bit of land know that every increase in sea level affects their survival. the sea grasses in the chesapeake bay are not as strong as the need to be. why? because the water temperature and rising water temperature. that affects our watermen and their lives, it affects the

diversity within the bay, it affects the health of the chesapeake bay. we are concerned about climate change. we are a coastal state. every state in america should be concerned about it. a military installations are vulnerable. senator carper mentioned the national security interest. there is a national security interest to make sure we deal responsibly with global climate change. the best thing is not adaptation. the best thing is to slow dance vent- slowed down and pre what we need to do with carbon emissions. looking at your record, you have done both, and i applaud you for that, because we need at epa administrator that will fall to a law, work with us, and protect the public as you should. i thank you for stepping forward, and i am proud to support or nomination. >> that you, senator.

senator sessions? but not good morning, and thank you. ms. mccarthy, it was a pleasure for me to have a good for a conversation with you they to yesterday, last night, and i value senator carper's opinion. i look forward to about awaiting your nomination. if confirmed, you will be taking control of a very important federal agency. there is no agency in government today that has more potential and actual reach down to the average american, touching their lives in ways never contemplated when congress passed the laws over the years. i have heard that you will be as distinct change from your predecessor and that you are pragmatic and data-driven. i hope that is true. it is important we move in that direction. i am mindful you are the principal architect of -- the greenhouse gas rules, this

ozone and standards and a cross- day air role, which was struck down by the d.c. courts. it, undernk about statutes passed before global warming was contemplated, now co2 is being defined as a pollutant, and epa is able to reach into someone's back yard where they are barbecuing, a lawn mower, the house, automobiles and so forth. it is a massive breach in just a pure sense of federal power to areas never before contemplated, and never expressly legislated by the united states congress. i worry about that. the american people worry about that, and we hear a lot of concern from my constituents. a study by the national association of manufacturers found that just seven of the new

epa rules would require total capital of expenditure of about $880 billion. that is very significant. americans expect at their environment to be protected, but they worry about our competitiveness in the world marketplace. certainly, after trillions of spending of this administration and hundreds of new regulations that had been asserted as creating jobs, united states has 3 million fewer jobs today than we had in two dozen a. we're not creating jobs breaks jobs are leaving the workforce every month, and last week's report showed 88,000 jobs being --ated, 486,000 jobs americans leaving the work force. it is not a healthy thing, in my opinion. i want to tell you about a brick company in alabama, one of our

companies -- counties with the highest unemployment rate in the state. they were formed in 1945. there's a picture of the family. they made about 35 million bricks the year. but in 1910 because they were making 75 million with 100 employees. by 2000, they were up to 115 million bricks. the economic downturn hurt them, as it hurt a lot of other countries, particularly brick companies. they fought hard to stay open. they hoped to stay open. they have just 60 workers today. in 2005, after epa passed a new company spentck scrubbers.y now entering into a new summit that you have entered into with

an environmental group, epa proposes and mores cringe role that would acquire -- require to install more equipment. their gross revenue last year was $6 million ticket you see the impact on this small company? this is a tremendous strain. it places jobs at risk. this is the kind of real impact that is occurring in our country today, and i just hope that if you are selected for this position and confirm, and it looks like you will be, then i think we ought -- you should consider this and some other similar situations as to go forward. those statements. i think senator you are next on the list. >> thank you. it is good to see you here and have you preside.

we appreciate you putting your name forward. some of to highlight that war, because i know what you are going to be doing as epa administrator, trying to figure out the right balance between environmental protection and our economic needs. that is what you struggle with every day when you do the work. as you are aware, we had a very serious air quality issue in mexico. it was an issue revolving around the regional hayes role and the time period of 2011. -- for thed to rule san want generating station -- to install the best available technology to reduce pollution.

it called for the owners of that generating station to install selective catalytic reduction technology on each of the four units. as you know, what occurred could have just deteriorated into lawsuits and gridlocked and there were accusations back and forth about how much it was done to cost, and we cannot go forward with this. the thing that i was impressed with is the epa and under your guidance and with the regional administrator, they said let's hear proposals about how to solve this. that's not get into a long contracted hassid and not get anywhere. what ended up happening as a result of that, the governor's and bartle agency -- we're talking about a republican governor and the public service co. of new mexico who owns this generating station and your regional administration all got

together, and they started talking. there was a proposal put out, and what ended up happening is what i would call a common dassin's solution, in this circumstance. fourf the nets of the retired and are going to be replaced. they will be replaced by natural gas-fired units. the actual technology on the other units i think is being updated. the company feels they can win with this. that is a win-win. all of the parties here, the citizens of the mexico, public service company that owns the generating station, the governor of new mexico, all of us supported that coming-together, and really, what i think you bring to this position is that kind of common sense solution of

problems. i support this nomination, and i do not want to go on any longer because we're trying to get through this. i will put a more detailed arguments and back up in the record as to what i have done here and leave an additional time for others to speak. i think this is a very good example of the kind of work that you have done, and i look forward to you doing the same kind of worked as the head of the epa. thank you very much. >> thank you. bozeman is next. >> thank you for holding this hearing. we appreciate you, ms. mccarthy, for your willingness to serve. these are difficult positions, and i appreciate coming by and having a good visit. we value clean water and air and

conservation really all about you a safe and clean environment for the benefit of all americans. no single agency or individual is responsible for bringing about these important goals. these are certainly things that the american people from all walks of life care about and cherished and work to achieve. i would like to talk about the transparency issue and the accountability. every federal agency should be committed to transparency and accountability. this includes transparency and accountability the congress and the american people. certainly we must hold every federal agency, including epa, to accountability in this regard. transparency and accountability of the epa could mean several things. it means the agency should respond fully, truthfully, and promptly the freedom of information act requests and congressional inquiries. it means the agency should not be conducted on secret email accounts and that shield

officials from accountability. in means the epa shares the science, the data, used to write rules that have an effect that will cost the american people billions of dollars every year. ofs is a matter transparency to congress, the scientific community, and the people. it means the epa should recognize and follow the spirit of cooperative federalism, working with state partners. the principles built into our most important and return the environmentalant are important. i hope we hear what that means in today bus hearing. in means the agency should applaud lot like the clean air act in a way that congress intended.

new authorities and requirements should not be discovered decades after a law was written in order to avoid accountability to democratic process. transparency and accountability mean all citizens from all points of view and side of the political spectrum will have equal access to agency activities and process, an approach that provides unique access and influence to one set of stakeholders on one side of the political spectrum while locking out states and other interested parties is hostile to the democratic values and the agency should upheld. -- on hold. i believe you are a gifted and committed individual with credentials and experience for the important role. my concern relates to the nee -- and i have said it over and over and discussed the transparency and accountability, and respect the democratic institutions and principles that are the foundation of our

country. yesterday i joined several colleagues in sending a letter to you outlining some concerns that we had regarding the agency. our requests are good government, nonpartisan requests based on principles that should not like all agencies and administers the but parties. i hope we will get a response quickly and thoroughly, proactively, and hope that today's hearing will allow us to dig into these issues more. thank you for being here. we look forward to your testimony. >> our final senator is gone to the senator to a brand, and finally he gets to say a word or two. >> thank you for holding this hearing. atm pleased to support the nomination of gina mccarthy. obama has made an excellent selection to put this forward. as we have heard, gina mccarthy is a distinguished servant with

a career spanning more than three decades. the assistant administrator for the office of air and radiation, where she has had a role in some of the most important policies that will protect the air we breathe by reducing emissions that threaten our health. with her leadership cannot the administration proposed a new vehicle admissions standards which will reduce tailpipe emissions and protect public health by lowering sulfur in gasoline. this is expected to reduce asthma rates in children. she has taken a role in reducing mercury, arsenic, and other emissions from power plants prepare for mothers like these types of policies are exactly the right priorities for the epa. gina mccarthy has worked at every level of government. i am confident she understands how the regulatory process

impacts states and local governments. it is important have administrator who can work with leaders to find common ground picke. protecting our families. she served republicans and democrats throughout her career, earning praise for her pragmatists appeared a former republican governor of called her a dedicated server with tremendous talent. willext epa administrator confront a broad range of challenges for restoring our significant water bodies to protect against the threat of climate change, protecting children from toxic chemicals. it is critical we have someone like you in that post he can

work to implement effective protections that will lead to a healthier population cannot preserve resources. i applaud the president for nominating gina mccarthy. i am confident you are the right person. thank you for your service and willingness to continue to serve the people. thank you, madam chair. >> thank you, and i want to thank my colleagues. you have been i think interested in this and it's wonderful to see both sides of the aisle come out in the numbers we have seen. ms. mccarthy, this is your time, and we look forward to hearing from you. > thank you, madam chairman. please allow me to express my appreciation to you, and ranking member vitter for holding this hearing, senator warren, senator cowan for your kind introductions, and members of this committee for the time that you have spent with me, both since i was nominated and during the years i served in my current position with the

environmental protection agency. family,like to thank my my husband, and my three children who are hopefully hard at work today. their support has been an endless source of energy an inspiration to me. i'm honored that the president has nominated me to lead the epa, having spent my career in public service. i know of no higher privileged and working with my colleagues with congress and our private and public partners to ensure families can agree clean air and live and learn and play in safer communities. i take the mission of epa seriously. to protect public health and the environment. we have made dramatic progress since 1970 when epa was first created. it gives them much to celebrate. our air, land, and water are cleaner and safer today. while the economy has grown and prospered during that time, this

record of success provides confidence we can meet the very real and significant challenges that we still face in protecting american families from pollution and ensuring future generations can live in a clean and safe for brault while enjoying even more prosperous economies. to that end, i know many members agree that we must ensure increasingly complex chemicals we use in products are safe. if confirmed i will look forward to working with members of this committee in their effort to reauthorize our antiquated chemical safety law. we must ensure that water that is so critical for public health is protected from dangerous contaminants, including a new emerging once rickif i am confirmed, i look forward to working with members on this committee to ensure that epa's use of science in protecting water quality is rigorous and transparent -- and that we are effectively helping our state and local partners as they shoulder their share of the mission to preserve and improve

the nation's water quality. as the president has made clear, we must take steps to combat climate change. this is one of the greatest challenges of our generation and our great obligation to future generations. i am convinced that those steps can and must be pursued with common sense. steps can be taking to reduce emissions while opening up markets for emerging technologies and creating new jobs. this administration has already set us on a path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 6 billion metric tons by doubling the efficiency of cars and other light-duty vehicles by 2025, which will save consumers an average of $8,000 at the pump and reduce our reliance on foreign oil by 12 billion

barrels. this national car program was a joint effort of states, the automobile industry, labour, environmental or diseases, and the federal government. it is one of the best examples of a key lesson that i have learned during my many years of public service. public health and environmental protections do not come solely out of government and they do not come solely out of washington, d.c. the happen in states, cities, towns, all across the us. when people take action to make their homes more efficient, their businesses run better, their products perform better, and a committee is cleaner, healthier, safer. prior to coming to epa, i was lucky to spend more than 25 years working at the state and local level listening to and being inspired by people from all walks of life. that brings me to one more important lesson that i learned. environmental protection is not

a partisan issue. i work for and with republicans, whocrats, and independencts share a willingness to figure out what kind of common sense approach we can take to be responsible and to act consistent with law and the science. that is why my door is always open. that is what i listen well, and i welcome all views. i know from our meetings and discussions that you share my passion and my commitment for serving the american people. i am fortunate enough if i am concerned as administrator to continue to work with you. sherman boxer, a ranking member of fetter, and all members of this committee, of the coming years, to serve the american people. the key very much, and i look forward to taking your questions. >> thank you so much. in the record if no objection, letters that have

come in in support of your nomination. six presidents of the american association for the advancement of science, the executive director of the american public health association, charles a lie its of automobile manufacturers, president of the national pork producers and il, william becker, like particularly what he wrote. she is brutally honest, very fair, humorous, and an incredibly hard-workiner. she is not an ideologue. she is a practitioner. former republican governor of connecticut. , a houston law firm that

ands on regulatory policy, the point is putting these into the record, there's a reason. this is a balanced group of people. they do not agree with others and do not always agree with you, and so i think it speaks well. the second thing i would like to put in the record without objection is this -- i want to make sure this is ok with epa sent youor vitters important letters with important questions, and it is my understanding have responded to him. i would like to put these letters and the record at this time, if no objection, in the interests of transparency that is so important to the sides of the aisle. we would do that, but also ask you if you intend to make those letters public. >> yes. >> ok. i guess because this is

such an important position and nobody could possibly reflect every point of view on this panel, i think we need to rise above our own particular ideologies and look at the human being and why you are willing to do this. have an open-ended question, not particularly scientific, but that inspired you to get into this kind of work and stick with it? >> that is a good question. let me take a bit of a shot at it pick when i went to graduate school at tufts, my intent was to go into the field of public health. i began in providence, rhode island, as my first job out of graduate school working in community health centers. i was interested in the delivery of health care at the time, particularly to underserved and poor populations.

got ill, and i went home to take care of her. i want the job nearer to home, ended up finding a job in my home town, and i found myself as the health agent there and all of a sudden there was a big bontroversy about some pc barrels. whethers were concerned those barrels and that's bill was causing them to have cancer in their community, and i got embroiled in a controversy that i was totally unprepared for, but worked my way through. i began to bore realize that a career in public health could be related to protecting the environment. important it was for people to feel like somebody was protecting them from this challenges. it was in the 1980's, when

things were unfold integrate law was being implemented, and i get swept into that, and it has been a great experience. , thank you for that. the senator and i have been working to pass legislation that is interesting, very much along these lines, where if there is a cancer hot spot, but the epa and other agencies could go in and help them figure out what is causing this. these concerns continue in the united states senate today. about emails thing that was raised again by senator boozman. i explain my idea of having a secondary email was started by christie todd whitman and is continued by democrats and the balkans following. one republican had as a moniker, tofu@epa.com.

in order to figure out what they need to answer, they have done that. i would like to ask you for the record, i understand the epa inspector general is looking into the agency's emailed management practices. are you aware of this ever and could you describe us what you know as of this date how that is going? >> inspector general is doing an audit, which we are participating in. i certainly feel and i believe the agency does as well that it is a great opportunity for us to have their independent view of what we can do well and approval on. the acting administrator is working closely with them and we are going to be taking their recommendations to heart and doing everything we can improve the system at epa, as we always would. >> ok. i will yield my time to senator vitters. i have to ask you -- is this a

question this as well? ok. if confirmed, will you focus on insurance the -- on ensuring that the agency complies with the freedom of information act? >> i will. >> thank you. >> thank you, and thank you, ms. mccarthy, for your service. and first, in reaction to some of the chair's comments about these aliases, let me go on winzer, aying richard that sounds pretty marcus, but i vote for tofu. that is more on the market. meat-eater, myself. [laughter] of the aisle side has focused on a lot of transparency concern, and that

has been my sole focus in terms of defining those five requests that i gave you when we first met. and again, to make clear, because i think barbara was a little mistake about it, that i did not come up yesterday. we talked about the first opportunity we had to meet, and then we repeated it in writing yesterday in a letter from all of us. i gave you that right thing in substance when we first met many weeks ago. i want to focus in that area because i take it is so important, and again, i am disappointed. the responses we've gotten that are now in the record, in my 1/4ion, addressed about 1 in the five areas. or been responded to any meaningful way. let's start -- that share has the alias email

accounts. i want to start with the real man, which is personal e-mail account spirit as you know, using personal email accounts at epa, lead directly to one administrator resigning. it is clear that this practice in many cases was used to hide information from the public. my question comes from that, and it is number two and what we have discussed. did you ever use private e-mail accounts to conduct official epa business? >> can i start by sharing your concern for transparency and accountability. i want to know -- you to know that i care as much about this as you do in our private meetings. i have done everything i can to focus on complying with lots

relative to accountability. i know these obligations. i do not conduct business through personal emailed. as we discussed before, when we met in person, there are times when i have gone home to boston and i have used my personal e- mail to send documents from to my home, but those have never left the government email system. those have always been sent back and are discoverable, and they would comply with the federal records act. >> ok, when we talked, you gave me this in response, "to the best of your recollection." are you confident that that recollection is perfect? >> you asked me that, and i want to be very honest with you.

lot.e thought about this a i also responded to your question as to whether or not my recollection was right. i searched my he battles -- my emails come to see if the work practice that i believe i did what i carried out fatefully. i did not find any circumstance in which i transferred documents from epa to anything other than back to an epa web site. and they have been maintained and discoverable. there was one exception, and it was not a document. i did find when i went back and searched that in my husband's email there was an unsolicited in-coming e-mail that was sent for me, and as soon as i saw it, i should get it into the epa site. >> great, so your answer includes not using your personal

account to correspond with any one else about epa official business? >> that is correct. >> ok. i had the same question regarding something that has come up in the p.m. and the administrator has expressed concern about. had he ever used instant messaging accounts to conduct epa business? >> one good thing about being 58 is i did not know how to use than that. i have never used them and i do not know how. sorry. you got to admit it. >> we're moving to senator sanders. >> thank you, senator boxer. state, wehy, and my take environmental issues quite seriously. where are proud of our record.

last month we had a town meeting on global warming. we had 600 people coming out, including a lot of young people. , dome begin by asking you you believe that global warming is real? >> i believe the science is overwhelming, yes. >> do you believe that global warming is significantly caused by demand as made activities? >> i think that man-made emissions contribute to global warming. >> senator boxer and i have heard from scientists who have told us they were -- no one can predict whether in the future -- that is for sure, but senator boxer and i have heard from scientist who helped us they fear that the temperature of this planet can warm by as much as eight degrees fahrenheit by the end of the century. is that something that you have heard and seen as possible?

>> i have heard a number of ranges of warming, yes. >> can you give us some idea as to what role you think the government and in particular the epa should play to address what i believe, if that happened, would be a monumental and catastrophic crisis for this country and for the plan that? >> president obama has indicated that he would look forward to congressional action on climate. in the meantime he has asked each of the agencies, including epa, to look at our authorities and what reasonable common best sense steps which can we begin to take that more effectively tackles the challenges associated with carbon pollution. carbon pollution, greenhouse gases, are a pollutants. that has been made clear by the epa. we are regulating these gases as pollutants, but doing it in common that sense steps so we

can make sure the economy continues to grow. but we believe we have opportunities for mitigating carbon pollution moving forward, and we are looking at our tools and the availability. >> let me ask you a question. many of us have talked about the economy. where are concerned about the economy. a lot to reverse that and ask you if we did not get a handle on and -- climate change, if we see more disturbing whether, most of us have voted for $60 billion just to deal with the aftermath of hurricane sandy. what are the economic consequences in terms of drought, fires, floods, or extreme weather disturbances if we did not get a handle and reversed climate change? >> senator, the economic exposure associated with climate change is quite large, not just the best of lee, but as a

national security issue. i would caution that climate change we're seeing an is happening is requiring us to looked plans for our cities and towns can be more resilient. that in an of itself is a significant investment in infrastructure that we really need to begin to plan for. >> let me ask you, the second part of the question is, do you see economic opportunities as this nation moves forward aggressively in dealing with greenhouse gas emissions? >> in my opening remarks i get the best example on the ground that i can give, which is the clean car program that the president has moved forward with, that is going to improve our national security, reduce carbon pollution significantly, and get people cars they want to .rive ticke there are many ways in which we can change this challenge into an opportunity for a clean- energy economy.

-- clearlyu agree the fastest most cost-effective way with dealing with pollution and emissions is to have less of them, through energy efficiency. would you be sympathetic to an aggressive effort to avert or whetherization and energy efficiency in this country? >> this administration has put considerable funds into those efforts, and they are right on target in terms of some of the best things we can do while at the same time reducing carbon pollution. >> what about sustaining energy? >> that must be part of the strategy as to move forward, yes. >> thank you. >> apparently i made a mistake. there was an agreement that each one would get seven minutes for questions. i took five. senator vitter, 5. if people want to stay, making it two minutes for the second

round, since we have been going since 10:30, and we will proceed now and the next person is senator>> did you need to go fi? that is all right, go ahead. -- well got theve me, i just new rules. you.ank we willt's five minutes, have to make this real quick. i have three questions at three answers. i will be quick and i asked you to be, too. circumventing the appropriate administrative process for developing these rules and settling scores of lawsuits brought by the environmental actuallystead of litigating them. the states have left out the

process. the attorney general for my filed a oklahoma request to release information about the settlements. the epa has denied this request. my question to you is, if i make that request to you, would you supply me with that information? >> senator, that is an area where i have had authority, so i will certainly go take that back to the agency and respond as quickly as i can to your request. >> i appreciate that very much. the epa overturned the original haste plan after a consent decree citing the process that as an accurate. oklahoma's plan was a low-cost plan, when hundred million dollars as opposed to $1.8 billion -- $100 million as opposed to $1.8 billion.

these are the two plans. the outcome has not been refuted. can you tell me whether or not you would take our state of oklahoma plan save the taxpayers $1.7 billion? >> this is an area i oversee, i am not familiar with the plan you are talking about. i am more than happy to respond. i have gotten very engaged in oklahoma, in particular, because we proposed a regional strategy for that plan. we worked with the region and we worked with the governor's office. we developed a plan that was more suitable for them, at which they are proposing to was for public comment. the one i am familiar with, we worked with the state. >> thank you very much.

i am troubled by the epa's actions using discretion to further a climate change agenda. this has been especially problematic for the news source performance standard for greenhouse gases in the utility sector. the epa has forced all power plants to leak the emission standards of power gas plants. what we are getting too is changing the category that has been historic plea the category of oil, gas,-- historically the category of oil, gas, broken down and the segments. could you read proposed the rule -- re-propose the rule, excepting this sub-categorized approach that they are taking? appreciate that

comment. it we have heard several comments. we received 2.7 million comments on that proposal. it tells me there is great interested in what we do. i assure you that we will take that comment into consideration as we look at finalizing a rule. >> you can't tell me now in terms of the sub-categorizing that you have been doing? would you be willing to go back -- i would prefer. >> i am more than willing to take that comment in the consideration and work it through the public process. coal is a vital resource. in light of this new standard, have you changed your mind? >> not at all, senator. >> can you explain why you use your discretion to abandon the

longstanding clean-air act? why did we change the categorization issue? >> we took a look at the categories and made a policy decision that it was the most appropriate way to look at energy generation to combine those categories. we believe the proposal created a pathway not just for natural gas facilities, but also coal. >> is that a policy that can be reversed? it can be. would u.s. is reversing that policy? reversing thatin policy? i have a third question that i have a feeling i will not be able to get through. very good. >> thank you. i want to respond to something that the chairman said about the dual e-mail accounts.

memo the 2008 epa records officer that states, " this dual account structure was implemented during the former administrator, carol brown's tenure. they are configured so the account holder's name appears to be in the sent by field. " richard windsor does not comply with the rules. will you please comply with the epa rules in regard to the secondary e-mail accounts that have been outlined in this document? i ask that this epa documents letter be included in the record. >> without objection. >> i am not familiar with the document but i will take it back to the acting administrator and we can respond to that.

from the rules of the epa april 2008, and it says the address from the secondary account has to be configured so the account holder's name appears in the sent by file. i have a pile of emails from richard windsor to you and from you to richard windsor. richards name does not appear anywhere. wonder if anybody at the epa objective or if you personally objected to lease a jackson using an alias-- lisa jackson using an alias against the policy of the epa. your e-mail to her go back to 2009. >> i am not familiar with the policy but i will familiarize

myself with it. >> it is important for this administration to be transparent or if they are trying to deceive the american people. >> since we are asking jean mccarthy, can you ask the republicans as well? carol brownerking that started or those during the bush administration. >> i think it would be interesting to ask them as well. chairman.ou, madam the president said if congress won't act to protect future generations he will direct the cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take in terms of pollution that prepare communities for the consequence of climate change. this administration has tried to pass highly controversial legislation in terms of climate change.

congress in a bipartisan way rejected these efforts by the president in terms of climate change. rejected the issues of federal waters. the house and the senate that introduced the bills have lost reelection bids. the epa doesn't seem to care about the american people. they have moved forward to enact these proposals despite the will of the american people, bipartisan. it includes clean water jurisdiction. jackson, doeisa you agree with what she has done with regard to climate change rules? i respectfully ask if i can stick with the program, i understand there are many issues that people are concerned on the waterside.

side. our rules that we have put forth to regulate that we believe the act requires us to regulate or is appropriate given the science. >> in january of this year, there was a proposed power plant that was canceled in corpus christi, texas. it would have employed 3900 folks. the ceo said the plant is a victim of the epa's effort to stifle solid fuel energy facilities in the united states including the requirements and the source performance standards. the same month, georgia power announced that the epa standards are blamed for the closure of 15 power plants and a loss of 480 jobs in georgia. since you have taken office, 10% been taken off line, thousands of people are

out of work and more get laid off with each plant closure. having anythe epa responsibility for the thousands of folks that are out of work? been willve coal has continue to be a significant source of energy in the united states. i take my job seriously developing standards to protect public health. i looked at the economic consequences and do my best to provide flexibility in the rules. >> would you allow me to do that? one question? i think it is important -- >> you need to wait. we will have another two-minute round. >> i am willing to give 30 seconds to my friend. >> i appreciate that from my old classmate for 86.

>> your 30 seconds are up. [laughter] i was going ask was the circuit court of appeals came against the epa, they are only applying that to the sixth circuit. would you be willing to commit to apply the sixth circuit court decision to the rest of the country? >> i am more than willing to go back and talk to my attorneys and get back to u.s. and as i can. -- as soon as i can. >> we are all concerned about the impact that the work that you do will have on our economy. jobs are critically important and we want to work to be done in a very transparent and open way. record have the epa has confirmed that. i appreciate any response you want to make to that.

, theirmaryland family child is not able to go to school because of asthma. the parent has to take a day off of work, that affects that family's income. if you don't enforce the clean air standards the way we should, there will be parents that will miss school days -- work days as a result of children missing school days. i have had maryland families tell me that they paid good money for summer camp for their children only to find that because of the warnings, they can send their children out that air health fo aiof risks. it also affect the parent that assumes their child will be in camp. there is a reason why we want cost-benefit analysis and to be

able to understand the impact. there has been voluminous material available to this committee as to the premature deaths, hospitalizations, extra of the dirtysult air and dirty water, not enforcing it at a level that we can. i want you to assure this committee that implementing the laws that congress has passed, we passed the clean water act and clean air act. we thought we had a responsibility for public health. and the future environment. that you will be guided by the best science at the cost benefit analysis that you do, that you it doing currently, that will be balanced. including looking after the responsibilities of congress that we put on you. >> it would be an honor for me

science,te, the law, transparency, accountability, and cost benefit guide my judgment. >> thank you. let me say that you have a reputation of being true to your word. being open, being transparent. that is the type of administrator that we need at the environmental protection agency. did a great, to me, public service to this country and i was always very straight with this committee and clear with her responsibilities. she continues to conduct her your record-- indicates that. it is the type of administrator we need. we will have our differences. there are more differences

between the members of the committee then with a witness before us. -- than with the witness before us. job is to work in an open and transparent way, to let science judge your work. i thank you for your commitment to do that and your record gives us confidence that you will carry out your responsibilities. >> senator fisher. >> thank you, madam chair. thank you for being here and i appreciate you offering yourself for extended public service. in nebraska, we are serious about our environmental stewardship and conservation management. i get calls and letters every day from nebraska farmers that are concerned about the compliance challenges associated with epa's spill prevent and control and countermeasure rule for fuel storage.

let me share with you want e- mail that i recently received. "we just became aware of this regulation yester day. it since we have a large quantity of storage capacity, we were not able to self-certify. in order to find a qualified engineer, i called the epa that told me to call their regional office in kansas city. they told me to call the nebraska board of engineers and they told me to call the professional engineers. but the number on there website is no longer in service. when i asked the gentleman how much it would cost, he said anywhere from $1,500-$4,800 depending on the ability to charge more due to this high demand and approaching deadline. when i asked the gentleman what we had not heard about it before now, he said the ruling was in

place for a long time but they had not done a good job of getting the word out." bipartisanaware, legislation has been introduced that will raise the exemption levels to storage capacity. i think it better reflects the risk and the financial resources of farms. would you support this common- sense solution to help ease regulatory burdens? raising the for question. i believe this is an issue that congress has dealt with, at least to give some temporary leeway to take a look at this question. i am happy to take a look at it. as we talked when we were together, the agency has bridges to build with the agricultural community. i would look for the cackling that with you and others -- tackling that with you and others. i know how hard they protect

their resources and i want to change the relationship between that community at the epa. >> do you know with agriculture has any history whatsoever of large oil or fuel spills? >> i am not aware of any directly but i can get back to you. >> another question i have. we had the opportunity to visit earlier this week about the deteriorating relationship between agriculture and the epa. farmers and ranchers have become increasingly frustrated with the bureaucracy that does not seem to understand the nature of our business or appreciate the pride that we take in our stewardship. i want to ask you and example of epa action -- of an example of epa action. the animal feeding operators personal information to environmental activist groups.

the epa is asking for the information back. there is the perception out there that there is collusion between the epa and some of these activists. the department of homeland's security expressed explicit concern to the epa about the creation of a national database about our animal feeding operations because of the risk it would impose on our nation. would you commit to not developing contract in or implementing such a database during your tenure? as iat i will commit to, am not familiar with this database, is to continue the path forward that acting haveistrator of purchasers taken. and to follow up with others that were concerned that we really improve the system at

epa. i know there is great concern that that information went out. i understand that concern and i will do everything i can to make sure those errors are not repeated. >> i view this as a national security concern, as does, an homeland security. >> thank you very much. >> we will turn to senator mirkley and senator sessions. >> i wanted to address biomass. i come from a lot of -- a part of the country that has a lot of biomass. in a meeting, someone said to me, wouldn't it be great if we could have something that takes carbon dioxide out of the air? we grow millions of those in oregon.

decision thathe was made under your direction for greenhouse gas emissions. the goal was to understand the difference between fossil fuels and biomass. and to create a framework to analyze it. that framework has been submitted to an independent scientific advisory board. and the findings are that biomass does have some carbon emissions related to transportation. but because it takes carbon from the atmosphere, the overall life cycle impacts are much lower. it is a very important thing to learn in terms of the scientific framework. the framework is fast approaching, we have one year

left on it. my goal is that we bring this scientific information to bear so that we don't put very different types of products into the same basket, if you will. just to thank you for your leadership on this issue, i know it was a big concern in your state as well as folks in the northeast and down south. iogenic recognize b emissions, proper early study that, account for that, and in the process moving forward. we got great advice from the science advisory board as we always do when we put our studies out. we are looking forward to resolving this issue in a way that people will think is thoughtful and appropriate. quicklyto do that because we have a july of 2014 timeline that is right in front of our eheads.

and we are looking forward to moving forward. >> this is a section of the river where a lot of industrial activity took place including a lot of shipbuilding during world war two. we are anxious to get through planning and into the actual efforts to clean up the river. cappingcombinations of sediment and removing sad andediment, it has been -- removing sediment. it has been years and years and i am hoping you will bring a philosophy to do the work and not just keep spending money on more and more studies. any thoughts? >> having worked at the state level for a long time, i know these issues are very difficult and i know they are incredibly important. i have worked on issues related to the cleanup of the boston

harbor, the new bedford harbor, cleaning up the long island sound, i understand the need to study. but i also understand the need to take action. weneed to make sure that move from steady to action. from the extent we can work together on the portland harbor, i appreciate that. i hope we can make efforts moving forward if i have the honor of being confirmed. >> we have a group of responsible parties that have stepped forward to work in close cooperation with the epa to get through appropriate studies and get to the action. costs andizes maximize as clean water. i hope the epa will work hard to utilize the close partnership. ,uel economy and standard thank you for your work on tailpipe pollution.

and increasing the mileage standards. with the savings per vehicle, saving families $1.70 trillion. that is a lot of money spent in other places, a benefit to our american families. work is one of those places where the higher quality of life of the families will spend elsewhere, cleaner air, it stimulates the economy. seems like a win on all fronts. >> the best outcome is that the automobile industry is thriving again. >> my time has expired. >> senator sessions? thes i indicated, environmental protection agency has extraordinary powers over virtually every american. the epa can impact our lives in

ways that i don't think congress contemplated when they authorized this agency or when they passed the clean air act. it is a serious problem that i hear all the time. i had a group of people yesterday, it was one of their three or four top issues, epa issues. it is across the board. nomination is important. i will be submitting to you 30 questions for the record. i deal with a lot of important issues. how you think you will administer this agency. would give us you a candid reply. >> i absolutely will, and thank you for spending more than an hour with me yesterday. it was a busy day. >> a valuable exchange. we talked about a number of things. tell me and the committee at the

american people that you understand the seriousness of the regulatory responsibilities that you have. and you will say no to anyone in the administration with political interests, the president included, if he is asking to conduct regulatory procedures and processes that you believe are not consistent with the highest standards of the epa administrator. >> i will abide by the highest standard that the lot at the science asks me to do. science askede me to do. and we will have conversations for you to hold me too bad. >> that's good. making those items that make americans' homes better. $1.5 million on absorbers that remove

pollutants. spentrecord companies $100 million so far -- brick companies than $100 million so far. but the rule was challenged, and in 2007, after the industry had complied with the rule, the court invalidated that. the epa's office entered an agreement with the sierra club to establish an ambitious schedule for finalizing new and more stringent brickmat rules. proposed, consent, and decree, there must be a new rule year andst of this finalized by july of 2014. is that correct? currentieve that is the

schedule, but i will get back to you. my memory may not be exact on that. >> this could be a costly rule that could add up to $8 million. for the record, letters from a series of brick companies that expressed concern about that. >> i do know that this particular sector has a number of small businesses. i think most are small businesses. it we will have to be incredibly sensitive to the impact of any proposed rule. to makend the final -- sure that we understand the implications of small business. >> you don't want to consolidate every small business and it clears the field for mega business. mccarthy, in november,

president obama said that the temperature around the globe is increasing faster than once predicted even 10 years ago. i thought that was curious because i have seen some data that indicated that was not true. flat.t, it has been very administrator jackson and asked her simply this, to theide the data supporting president's assertion along with a chart of the average global temperature increases since 1979 predictions.test you responded to that. but it did not respond to my question. he basically said -- you basically said, there are

multiple lines that demonstrate temperatures are rising. specificot provide data in relation to the question i asked regarding the president 's -- >> senator, i'm adding two minutes to your time. madam chair., >> i am happy to take a look at that and get back to you. in theh 30, the article climatet that supports change stated, a "over the past 15 years, air temperatures have been flat while greenhouse gas emissions have continued to soar." do you dispute that? i don't have that but don't

look at me as a climate scientist. i rely on those that are, and i would be happy to take a look at the study and get back to you. >> it makes sense to me and it has created a common-sense idea that a blanket of fact of co2 might increase the temperature and we have seen some temperature increase over the mayb.eover the century maybe.century but has it been following the models? this red line is the average of what the model shows and the other lines show it is not reaching that level. i hope the president will be accurate in his statement. the senator gets five, i get

five, and you are done. usthank you for being with so long, we appreciate that. to the embarrassment of my three daughters, in regard to instant messaging, i don't have a clue how to do that. let me ask you three things that are really important. a wateracing infrastructure shortfall of $25 $500 billion, about billion annually. this doesn't take into account of the hundreds of billions of compliance costs that municipalities are facing due to the epa's expansion of clean water. sometimes i think they are right and sometimes i think they are overly aggressive.

they're falling on ratepayers that have very little discretionary income. the communities are in trouble themselves. the increased cost hit low- income families and economically distressed communities. a number of cities and groups like the u.s. conference of mayors, the national league of cities, the association of clean water agencies have been seeking increases for requirements and developing longueur compliance schedules to meet the increasingly complex requirements. ask, so far the epa has been working to partner in these efforts to some extent. my questions are, would you continue to support the integrated planning framework which is designed to maximize public utility flexibility

meeting the requirements of the clean water act? >> i think that you find you will have a very big friend and me. under thehat they are need for us to be flexible as well as support these acts. >> do you have plans to make the integrated plan even more useful to utilities? >> if there is a way that we can do that, i think that is the smartest thing available. >> the other thing that has come up, what we would like to do in terms of congressional act as extend clean water act permits. one of the things we have going on right now that is impacting the economy in so many ways, you don't know what the future holds. would you be willing to look at longer permit processing so that we can have a longer period that

the communities can plan? >> i wish i knew enough about that issue to answer you firmly. but since i have not worked in this area, i will take a look at what flexibility there are and if i am confirmed i will be happy to work with you waon it. >> the epa frequently issues proposed rules that are complex and lengthy, taking years with the study is gathering information. sometimesmes, thousands of facilities will be regulated. frequently, the epa provides 60 days for comments in regards to some of these proposed rules. to me, that is a little bit on the short side. my question is, would you be willing to look at a longer period of time to have someone

-- i am suggesting 90-100 days. long, just to read this stuff is probably adequate. underlying into the stuff, would you be happy to look at that? >> i would be more than happy to look at that issue. optometrist by training, so i am familiar with the scientific world. taxpayerthat we have financed the databases to conduct cost-benefit analysis, really any other entity making decisionslly difficult that have tremendous impact, i don't understand why all of that information is not being made public? . i was at the white house

yesterday and visited with the president. i walked through security without any problems. they don't look at me because i am a senator. but the idea that i can't get the information i need to see the studies that you are doing -- have trust in the agency, but we have oversight. i don't understand that. >> the information we have not been able to gather and share is information that is confidential. it relates to a medical records and can be traced back to specific people. we are required to protect that. having said that, if there is anything we can do to build a more trusting relationship on these issues, i want you to feel more confident as time goes by that we are doing the science we are supposed to do and basing decisions on the best science.

>> that can be redacted as far as the people and that sort of thing. bunch of have a information that you shouldn't have, you had knowledge you shouldn't have dumped out. transparency, and i don't know there is any other area of research, those things are taken care of. you redact, do this and that. names and things like that. the basic science can be given. there is no excuse for that. >> i am happy to work with you with their things we are not doing. i know the administration is fully committed to transparency. if there is something we are doing to not get the data, we will take those steps. >> thank you very much.

>> thank you, madam chair. to follow up on my colleague's question, that was one of our central point. we have been very specific about what we think you are not doing. i think john is exactly right. you can give us all of this data once it has been scrubbed of personal identifying information. that is what we are asking for, it is possible. it has been asked for for years. it has not been provided. make that request. there has been a lot of discussion about cost-benefit analysis. and we think that is being done in an inadequate way under the law. the clean airder act requires the epa to conduct continuing evaluations for

potential loss or shift to unemployment. [indiscernible] 321-a analysis ever been done? >> on the agency, but not on those particular rules. biggest impacts in history. has a 321-a analysis been done on that? economy analysis was not done on the clean air act rules, it was a larger analysis that the agency undertook. when we did those particular rules, we followed the directives that we are allowed to follow. we used the modeling available to us, the most appropriate available. we used the data available and

we did it in a robust way and made that transparent. could extent that we define the economic consequences of those rules using the best mottling available, we believe we did that, senator. if there are other things that you think we should be doing, -- not done.sis was i think that is required and appropriate. did it take account of the negative impact of the increased cost? energyooked at expected costs, expected job growth or loss. quantify thecally expected energy cost increases and measured those impacts? well-m probably not position to answer these questions, but i am more than

happy to do that following the meeting and we can walk through those issues. >> this is a huge body of your work, a pretty fundamental question. inare measuring spikes energy costs, that would be a big factor. my understanding is that was not dawned on the economy-wide basis. let me move to another big concern of ours, no. 5 on the list. the sue and settle practice. suedme cases, the epa is by left-wing viron mental groups. they are the only two -- environmental groups. they are the only two parties and the impacted parties never get input. we ask you to change that practice. so far, you have not agreed to

that request. should an effective group, like havetates, shouldn't they a seat at the table? know thet hey settlement and have input? >> how we practice under the clean air act, it requires public comment on settlement agreements. it offers opportunities. dodge that is after the agreement. >> that is before the agreement is finalized. we take that into consideration. are notgreements finalized? >> it is between the epa and the department of justice. that we put the draft out for public comment. >> have you ever changed agreements based on comment?

>> i don't know the full history of the agency. anyas regional changed in way when the state said that they were the primary player? >> we worked closely with states on regional issues and working on the implementation plan to the extent that we can. >> have you responded to their formal request? specificot sure which when you are talking about but i can find out. >> i would like that for the record. >> thank you. administrator mccarthy, does the agency analyze the impact of these rules including a widely accepted economic models? >> that is how we do our business, senator. management andf

budget reviewed the analysis to make sure it meets official guidelines? >> we do. >> and does the public debt to review and comment on these rules and point out anything that they see as a problem? >> yes, they do, chairman. >> i want to place in the record this letter that was waved around by one of our senators, barrasso. epa, don't usehe a false name. here it is. guess what? it is going in the record without objection. the reason the letter was written, under steven johnson, there was destruction of hundreds of email. it started an investigation of

what happened to these e-mail's. as they went through them, they were destroyed automatically every 90 days. the johnson people said we printed up anything that we thought was important and destroyed the rest. that is the genesis of this thing. if that is where the republicans want to go with their hearts, we are ready. this issue is a non-issue in terms of the epa now. you how much io admire you, how much i thank you on behalf of my children and grandchildren for your years of bipartisan service to our nation. the work you have done already is a legacy and i hope and pray my colleagues will give you this opportunity to continue to serve. i think you have proven today that you are in this for the right reasons.

i also want to thank your husband and your kids. because it is a sacrifice, and it is a balance. and i want to thank them so much, because i know they are very proud of the work you do. in conclusion, i would hope that we can move this nomination swiftly, i will work with all of my colleagues to try to mark this up as soon as possible. i can't announce that we have an agreed upon date, but i am hopeful that we will have one soon. -- raisell take me your right hand. the u.s. agree to appear before this committee or designated members of this committee and other appropriate committees to provide information subjects

your program and necessary security attention with respect to your responsibilities? >> i do. >> you agree to share other forms of communication are provided to this committee and the staff and other appropriate committees in a timely manner? >> i do. >> assistant administrator mccarthy, do you know of any matters which you may or may not have disclosed that might place you in any conflict of interest if you are confirmed? >> i do not, chairman. >> with those answers, we thank you for your service. we thank you for being here today. we thank your staff and your family. i thank my colleagues for working with me to make sure this goes smoothly and we stand adjourned. h[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

earlier today, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius testified on the budget request for her department. here is some of her testimony. this is the marketplace timeline for the exchange. public to seehe how they are on track. when i look at it, i see deadline after deadline the agency -- deadline missed. the final market rules regulation was messed. the payment notice was messed. -- missed.

you announced a delay in the choice option for small businesses. you also delayed the basic health care plan for year 5. these delays are having a real impact and real people are concerned about these delays. the failure of the agency to meet the deadlines raises real concern. b?you have a plan do you have a contingency if the exchanges are not ready, up and running with a fully informed public by october 1? before,answered congressman, we will be open for enrollment october 1 of 2013 and we will be enrolling americans across the country january 1, 2014. >> at this point, you have had no discussions about contingency plans? >> we have lots of contingency

plans. >> for not meeting october 1? >> we are determined to be october 1. >> you can assure this committee that there will be no further delays in the implementation of exchanges? track to meet the deadline. >> you can assure us? >> i can only tell you what i am telling you. i can't tell you exactly what will happen at every step along the way. i can tell you that is the determination. >> you're not on track to meet it. you have missed so many deadlines. >> yes, we will meet -- >> there will be no further deadlines best? no further delays? >> i don't quite know what that means.

paper -- it on the could. we will october 1r busine we will be open for business on october 1. is two months late. is that being delayed again this week? next week? are we seeing another ongoing delay? >> that is not ours, that is the labor department's notice but i understand it is imminent. that is not an hhs rule. >> thank you very much. >> prime time on the c-span that works, we will tell you the entire briefing with the health and human services secretary sebeilius. -- sebelius. and we will look at the veterans affairs budget with eric

shinseki. >> orphaned at age 11, she lives with her favorite uncle, james buchanan. he becomes president and she served as white house hostess. she is the first to be called first lady on a regular basis and was so popular that she said trends in clothing. we will look at her life and that of her predecessor, jane pierce. as well as your comments through facebook and twitter. also on c-span radio and c- span.org. earlier today, federal reserve chairman ben bernanke talked about the u.s. economy and community development. he spoke here in washington for about 20 minutes. [applause]

>> hi. atm very happy to be here the biannual federal reserve system conference. the work you are doing here, sharing research and exchanging ideas on how best to further the development of low-income communities is vitally important. resilience theme, and rebuilding, reflects that low-income communities were particularly hard hit by the recession. employment and housing show signs of improving, but conditions in lower income neighborhoods remain difficult by many measures. for example, analysis reveals that vacant housing units tend to be concentrated in neighborhoods that have high unemployment rates, low educational levels, at a low median incomes. while some of these are in inner

cities, some are in the suburbs. likeanalysis and others show the close connections of housing conditions, educational levels, and unemployment experience. moreover, poverty is no longer primarily an urban pet on a non -- phenomenon. reflect the social services needed to mitigate poverty. the mitigation of these trends are profound. rebuildtegy is to communities cannot focus deterioration of neighborhoods. progress will require a multi- in a coherentch and mutually consistent way. strategies will have to be adapted for urban, suburban, and

rural settings. as researchers and practitioners, you are confronting the challenge of effectively attending to the needs of both individuals and communities as well as places. community development has a long history of innovation and learning from experience. notably, after decades of top- down federal efforts, it became increasingly apparent that a one-size-fits-all approach did not serve communities well. the urban renewal programs of the 1950's and 1960's were the most prominent examples of well- meaning but misguided efforts to revitalize the decaying inner- city neighborhoods. in practice, these policies devastated neighborhood cohesion for bottom-up solutions. the most influential critique was jane jacobs, the 1961 book

"death and life of great american cities." in that book, she celebrated the complexity and organic development of neighborhoods in which intricate social networks impact the quality of life and economic opportunity. a police force was not as effective of maintaining order as public actors such as storekeepers and interested neighbors acting as street watchers. self-monitoring is likely to emerge in neighborhoods with a rich mixture of activities taking place and buildings of varying age, character, and use. social science research has jacobs'd -- vindicated perspective. the natural disasters matched the extreme heat waves in

chicago in 1995. they found the death rates were higher in poor areas where air conditioners were scarce. and they noticed a remarkable difference in the fatality these neighborhoods were comparable by many measures. oath were 99% african-american -- both were 99% african- american. yet inglewood experienced 33 deaths per 1000 -- 100,000 .esidents researchers found that a key difference between grisham and other neighbors lay in its physical and social topography. vitality of its sidewalks, restaurants, and community organizations that brought friends and neighbors together, making it easier for people to .ook out for each other this example illustrates a point

that many community development practitioners have come to embrace. resilient communities require more than decent housing. they require an array of amenities to support the social fabric of the community and build the capabilities of community residents. the movement towards a holistic approach to community development has been long in the making, but the housing crisis has motivated for the progress. implementing a holistic approach is easier said than done. government resources are still largely managed in silos. quarter dating -- coordinating government agencies requires extorted or a commitment an effective leadership -- extraordinary commitment and effective leadership. let me give another example drawn from the experience of the eastlake neighborhood in atlanta. a neighborhood that exemplifies

the effects of concentrated poverty. in the early 1990's, eastlake had a crime rate 18 times higher than the national average. of adults received public assistance and only 5% of fifth-grade children were able able to meet state academic performance standards. a local philanthropist tom and tom cousins, wanted to improve the quality of life in this neighborhood. but he understood the eastlake's problems were interconnected. schools could not perform well if students feared for their safety, arrived hungry, and were otherwise underprepared or unable to learn. high dropout rates fueled the neighborhood's high rates of unemployment and crime. to deal with the interconnectedness of the neighborhood's problems, cousins determined to attack them simultaneously. he created the eastlake foundation to facilitate

transformative change. the foundation partnered with the atlanta housing authority to replace the low income housing project with mixed income housing that accommodated former tenants and other very low income residents as well as attracting new, higher income families. and independently offered charter school, and early learning center serving 135 children were built. began toa center serve as a neighborhood gathering place. the foundation worked to attract commercial investments in the neighborhood. creating and navigating the complex array of interests of the community, the local government and private sector took 10 years of effort. the character of the neighborhood was fundamentally changed. today crime in eastlake is down by 73%. violent crime is down by 90%.

the percentage of low income adults employed has increased from 13% to 70%. drew charter school moved from last place in performance among 69 atlanta public schools to fourth place. 74% of its students receiving free and reduced price lunches, drew performs at the same level as public schools in far more affluent areas. these educational outcomes alone argue for the wisdom of the holistic approach to community development. this excess in eastlake raises the question whether a similar approach could work in other communities. 2000 nine cousins launched a community development organization called purpose built communities. experience so far suggests that while the framework can be replicated, it requires certain neighborhood conditions to succeed, including housing

developments of concentrated poverty which can feasibly be replaced by good quality, mixed income housing at sufficient scale to change the housing and income characteristics of the neighborhood. the opportunity to create one or more schools accountable to parents and the community. and civic and business leadership that is prepared to create and support an organization charged with coordinating the necessary partnerships and seeing through the long-term plans. the purpose built strategy is quite different from those of most other bodies whose decisions affect community development. city governments rarely organize around neighborhoods. school boards, housing authorities and transit systems all make decisions critical to help the neighborhoods, but they generally act independently of the city government. the goals of such bodies are typically not measured in terms of health of neighborhoods in any holistic sense.

this mindset may be changing. for example, los angeles recently adopted a community- based approach to strategic planning. its five-year consolidated plan recognizes that no single program or effort on its own is likely to lift families out of poverty or reduce crime in neighborhood. rather, los angeles planning calls for a multifaceted approach, quote, build healthy communities by integrating community, economic and housing development investments with transit opportunities to increase their positive impact on neighborhoods. it recognizes the idea to build 's institutional capacity so it can coordinate these efforts. composed of or presented its from city departments. the cabinet will be responsible for identifying neighborhoods for coordinated investment across sectors. perhaps one of the most

promising new partners in community development is the healthcare sector. factors such as educational attainment, income, access to healthy food, and the safety of the neighborhood tend to correlate with individual health outcomes in that neighborhood. because these factors are links to economic health as well as physical health, healthcare professionals and community development organizations are seeing new opportunities for cooperation and local income -- in low income to mentees. -- communities. because asthma results in a significant loss of school days and billions of dollars in treatment costs, it is easy to see that these efforts have the potential to improve not only help, but also educational and ,conomic outcomes -- health but educational and economic outcomes. the community development sets oftions offered

tools, including sophisticated development techniques. using data from 38 children's hospitals, the philadelphia research institute founded in crease between rates of foreclosure -- found an increase between rates of foreclosure and poor health. creating access to fresh food, finding partnerships to subsidize groceries. this illustrates the benefits of broad-based collaboration. research is helping to sharpen this approach and give more insight into what works. in 2009, the federal reserve bank of boston, researchers evaluated the effects of concentrated poverty in springfield, massachusetts as part of a larger study.

intrigued by the results, the boston fed researchers turned their attention to identifying the factors that make it possible for some cities to adjust to changing economic conditions. the researchers identified 25 midsize manufacturing cities around the country that were similar to springfield in 1960, when that city was at the height of its prosperity. they asked what accounted for the differences in the economic trajectories experienced by this group the cities over the past 50 years. their analysis indicated that industry makes, geographic location made less difference to success in the presence of community leader and collaboration around a vision for the future. in some cases, leadership came in the form of an energetic mayor, but not always. the study found that leadership can come from almost anywhere. the successful leader was simply the person or entity that recognized the importance of preventing further deterioration in the local

economy and agreed to take responsibility for the effort to turn things around. the leader helped facilitate local collaboration, which was essential not only because economic element is complicated and multidimensional, but also for the more prosaic reason that outside funders typically require that all interested stakeholders commit to a strategic direction. specific avenues to recovery. among the cities identified. some built on traditional strengths while others created new business clusters from scratch. grand rapids, michigan, once known for its furniture manufacturing, worked to become a major medical center in the region, partnering to form the medical education and research center. jersey city has successfully transformed itself from a manufacturing-based economy to a financial center. it's proximately to new york city makes this transformation seem obvious -- proximity to new

york city makes this transformation seem obvious. the studye cities in made significant investments in infrastructure and people to aid the transition to a knowledge- based economy. greensboro, north carolina worked with the nearby cities of winston, salem, and high point to build a regional airport and replace its manufacturing economy with one based on high- tech research and production. pattern, greensboro drew on local resources and post secondary education, with community colleges providing courses to enhance job skills and universities partnering with businesses. in greensboro's case am a technology and pharmaceuticals. -- case, technology and pharmaceuticals. all these examples show that a economic recovery

depends on its ability to draw on its own particular assets. leaders that recognize the potential of those assets and foster collaboration and exploiting them can help communities remake themselves. the question becomes how to develop and encourage local leadership. technical assistance, networking opportunities and mentoring programs are just some of the ways that leadership can be locally fostered. based on its evaluation of springfield and cities of similar size, the boston fed worked with public-private philanthropic partners to come up with an idea to enhance leadership and spur transformative change. thebank recently announced working cities challenge, a grant competition for smaller cities in massachusetts designed to foster local collaboration. winning grants are respected to demonstrate cross sector collaboration and involve groups that typically do not work together.

prize money is being provided by living cities, a national philanthropic collaborative. the value of this competition goes beyond grant money, although that will undoubtedly help those who receive it. the real value is that it is going to encourage conversations among local stakeholders that are necessary to make real and lasting change. participants will receive access to technical assistance and planning resources as well as to a growing network of public-private, nonprofit and philanthropic leaders who are focused on improving the economy of its smaller cities. for practitioners of community development as in any field, joining a network of like-minded professionals is important for building skills and becoming aware of opportunities and resources. neighbor works america, the leading provider of community development training in the country, has provided mentorship and leadership

training for more than 25 years. in the past few years, neighbor works has developed its programs further. recognizing that effective board leadership is key to the health and effectiveness of its more than 235 member organizations, neighbor works established the achieving excellence program in 2002 for its executive directors and others in the organization with significant responsibility. this 18 month program offers professional coaching an opportunity to work with peers to solve a particular organizational challenge. the community leaders institute is an annual event that attracts 800 resident leaders from across the country, making it the largest residential leadership development initiative in the field. attendees arriving teams of eight and choose from among 40 workshops and topics such as

public speaking, planning, you element, mobilizing -- youth development, mobilizing senior citizens. they develop action plans addressing the particular issues in their neighborhoods. they are given a $2000 grant so they can return to their communities and go back to work. more than 13,000 resident leaders have gone through the institute today. some cities have replicated the format to improve local training for residents. these and similar programs not only train leaders, but create networks and partnerships in the opportunity to learn from each other -- and the opportunity to learn from each other. neighborhoods and communities are complex organisms that will be resilient only if they are healthy along a number of interrelated dimensions. much like the human body cannot be healthy without adequate air, rest, and food. substantial coronation and dedication are needed to break through silos to simultaneously

-- collaboration and dedication are needed to break through silos to simultaneously make improvement. each community has its own particular set of needs which depend on local conditions and resources. together with a vision of what a community can be is essential. with that in mind, i want to thank all of you for the role you are playing in bringing your skills and research and analysis to the important work of rebuilding lower income communities. community development leaders have no shortage of commitment to their goals. with the insights that you provide, together with the opportunities to learn from the experiences of other communities, they will be better prepared and thus more successful in meeting the very difficult challenges that they face. thank you for being here. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions copyright national

cable satellite corp. 2013] prime time, they look at president obama's 2014 budget request. it was announced earlier this week at the white house. on c-span, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius talks about her department's request. c-span2 looks at the veterans affairs budget, with secretary eric k. shinseki. c-span3, the head of the national park service discusses priorities. beginning tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on the c-span network. earlier today, a house appropriations subcommittee held a hearing on the president's 2014 budget request for the drug enforcement administration. here is a portion event looking at the legalization of -- whata and what that

message that would sent to america's youth. >> let's take the states that have already passed medical marijuana. -- we soonluence influence of mexican marijuana, especially out west, with the dispensaries -- we see an influence of mexican marijuana, especially out west, with the dispensaries. we know what happened with medical marijuana in the states. use grew overnight. overnight, dispensaries -- more dispensaries than starbucks. it has gotten to the point, so out of hand that cities and municipalities in southern california are banning dispensaries from coming to their areas because they saw what happened and saw the influence.

more crime in that area. do a little surveillance like we do on some of these dispensaries and you will see that the primary patients of a dispensary are males from the .ge of 18 to 26 there is a lot of apparent sick people out there. we are concerned. we already know the experiment. the netherlands is a perfect example. they went to their coffee shops and all that. they are trying to put the genie back in the bottle. it did not work for them. >> so the answer is yes. some of the marijuana in cases like that where it is legalized , it will be the mexican cartels, who are then involved , willtty heinous crimes

ultimately be involved. the other question i want to ask you, if you could just educate -- i see our good friends from c-span here. if you would tell what you would say to a mom or dad or maybe a governor or state legislator or a member of congress, what is the problem with marijuana? if they were to say to you, administrator, there really isn't a problem -- tell us as a parent, grandfather, tell us. , whatr. and mrs. america is the problem with marijuana? i wouldng to a parent, say they're going to listen to what your messages. as a parent, your message needs to be that you need to talk to them about drugs.

>> why? thatu need to tell them marijuana is the most prevalent drug that teens use. the latest study of marijuana has shown that a marijuana user that starts at age 13, by the time they are in their 20's, they have been testing to show about eight percent drop in iq. i don't know any other drug that .as shown a study like that i'd be glad to give you that one. i'm worried about some figures from colorado just since medical marijuana became legal there. the increases in car accidents and fatal car accidents. i have got figures i can give you on that. >> there will be an increase in

car accidents or fatal car accidents? >> increase in car accidents has got to be a major concern. a driver who has used marijuana is twice as likely to have a crash than someone who did not. there are a lot of statistics out there, because people have looked at the science. science tells us that marijuana belongs in schedule one because it is high potential for abuse. more teens enter drug treatment for marijuana addiction than other illegal drugs and alcohol. it's a fact. there has been no recognized medical use and treatment in the u.s.. that has been determined by the on research that has been done. there is a lack of accepted safety protocols for use of the

drug, even under medical supervision. we are worried about this with young people because there is also a connection between schizophrenia, psychosis -- it is the young marijuana user. they have studies now. they looked at the science. .his is a dangerous drug the message the kids are going to get in social media, on television, on the radio, in their songs, with their peers, is that it is a harmless drug. parents need to say, here are the facts. >> is a gateway drug? -- is it a gateway drug? >> there is a connection between marijuana use, especially early marijuana use.

you can see a connection between marijuana use and the likelihood of the kid being addicted to tobacco. they also will show these connections between drug use that starts early with marijuana, and moving on to the other drugs. there have been studies for years on that. >> that was a portion of a hearing held earlier today. you can watch the entire event tonight at 11:40 pm eastern here on c-span or any time online at cspan.org. >> i really learned this week how humanizing politics is. it's about people that really interact. we learned that we can do this. we are all capable of being leaders of our country.

it's about working together and finding common ground. >> before this program, i was not that optimistic about the future. all the media shows is submitted -- the negative aspects of the future. the program made us more optimistic and positive. >> we get the negative opinion from the news media. every day there working together. able to putn is aside his differences with justice scalia and go hunting. it happens everyday. >> president obama summed this up perfectly. he was saying that our country has been in turmoil throughout its history, but we as people have always found a way to get through it. i'm not saying i'm not worried about the future. but i look around this room and see what hundred and three minus -- 103 minds to want to

make a difference for this country and do good. i am pretty sure that there are many other young people who want to do the same. each year, high school students from across the country meet in washington as part of the senate youth program. this year they met with leaders from all three branches of government, including president obama, justice elena kagan and senator richard burr. here their insights from the week sunday night at 8:00 on c- span q&a. >> the house gaveled out earlier today, but not before passing a bill that limits the authority of the national labor relations board. that completes legislative work for the week. the chamber returns live on monday at noon eastern. 2:00 p.m. for legislative business. to hear more about next week's agenda, majority leader eric cantor.

>> thursday the house will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business. on friday, no votes are expected rat. the house will consider suspensions next week, a complete list of which will be announced by close of business today. we expect a robust debate next week on the importance of our nation's cybersecurity. the house will consider a number of bipartisan bills to reduce obstacles to voluntary information sharing between the private sector and government, secure our nation's infrastructure, better predict -- protect government systems and combat foreign threats. a number of committees will bring bills to the floor next

week. in the coming months, i expect to continue to address cyber security legislation. will consider hr-624, the cyber intelligence sharing and protection act. >> thank you for that information. it is critically important legislation. know there are continuing differences with reference to the protection of individual citizens privacy on this legislation. i also know the critical nature of providing access and exchange of information so that we can protect americans, protect our country, and protect our

intellectual property and commercial property. i would hope and expect that we would be working together in a bipartisan way to make sure that we can reach consensus. i know that both you and i are pleased that chairman rogers and ranking member rubbers have been working together. mr. leader, i hope you have noticed -- earlier this week and made a reference. i mentioned the jobs bill. i made a little fun of the jobs bill. we all voted for it because it was a good bill we put together, five or six bills. it had bipartisan support. we put them together. the president signed that bill. our make it inof

america agenda on our side and your jobs growth expansion on your side. , make said in my speech it in america, which refers to manufacturing in america, , andng things in america doing what americans are hopeful that we are focused on and that is creating jobs. last congress, we created the look penske bill, which came out of the house in a bipartisan fashion. unfortunately, it did not pass the senate, but you and i both know that if you are going to

you have to have a plan to do so. this involves the coming together of laborers, entrepreneurs, investors and government in terms of the part we can play to ensure that we are making things and america and that goods around the world ."ve on them "made in america a bipartisan fashion on the export-import act. we worked very diligently together to get that done and passed it in a bipartisan fashion. the third part of the "make it in america" agenda would be encouraging manufacturers to bring jobs home.

we have an excellent opportunity, given the context of where we find ourselves, where salaries are going up overseas, where it is more expensive now to ship goods back to the united states because of transportation costs, the largest orchid in the world, and thirdly, as the jet -- largest market in the world, and thirdly, as the gentleman notes, our need to expand our energy supply, particularly as we see the natural gas technology advancing, that the united states of america is going to be one of the least expensive energy venues in the world and have one of the best supplies in the world. all of this ought to go to helping us reinvigorate and expand manufacturing and create middle-class jobs paying good

wages and providing good benefits. lastly, we want to ensure that we invest -- and i noticed the gentleman sent out a memo to your members. i do not think we purloined a copy, but we did get a copy. you talked about investing in making sure that the quality of life and jobs were available for working americans. , as youto make sure pointed out, that we invest in infrastructure and education to make sure we have the training necessary to have people to be able to perform the jobs that in theng to be required growing economy and the global marketplace. i say all that, mr. leader, to suggest that i would like to sit down with you so that we can

talk together about how we can mutually move forward on what i call a "make it in america" agenda but what is a jobs agenda, a growing american agenda. i am hopeful we can do that and i think it will be positive for our country, and i think americans will feel good about it and i yelled to my friend. >> thank you, mr. speaker. remarks appreciate his and willingness to sit down and find areas of agreement. as the gentleman and i have expressed on this floor in many of occasions, there is plenty of disagreement, no shortage of supply in this town on that. we still struggle in trying to come together. but i listened to the gentlemen and i know he is very committed and has been to his agenda of making it in america.

, ito the gentleman knows gave a speech earlier this year the american enterprise institute about trying to make life work for more people in this country. there is a common interest we have in these two programs, if you will. we talk about the kinds of things that will help working families, that will help working people get a job again. to increase job availability, make sure we have more american jobs. we also have a skills problem. week past these skills act on the floor a couple of weeks ago. my hope as we can increase bipartisan support for things like that, because it was simply an attempt to respond to a recommendation where there are 50 different job training programs that the federal level. certainly, we can do better than that. certainly we can streamline and

still protect the kind of individuals that the statue requires we protect. veterans, people on limited income that we can help put in place for employment. we all believe we are a society built on hard work, built on playing by the rules and getting ahead. i welcome the gentleman's commitment hid those types of things. he mentions -- commitment to those types of things. he mentions the need to invest. there is a real mentality on this floor of how we can work together for all americans. i have talked a lot in this making life work for people and for families. really, the priority that we place in this country on medical research, on research and development, because it is the seed corn of the future. while we are constrained by the current fiscal situation, it

does bring to light setting priorities. we are not going to be able to fund everything, but certainly we can agree on trying to find medical cures, trying to understand how we can better therapies, treatments so people can live longer and have a better quality of life. these are the kinds of things i look forward to working on with the gentleman as well. i accept his invitation and look forward to being able to sit down. >> i think one of the sad things is, we have passed a fiscal priority at this point called sequester which looks at the

lowest and highest priorities in similar ways. i think we should obviate the sequester. i think it is bad for the country. i think it is bad for the future and bad for our economy. toward that end, i would say, mr. leader you have talked about and in fact be passed legislation that was designed and require the passage of a budget by the senate. the senate has now passed a budget. we have passed the budget. the president has presented a budget so that we have three alternatives on the table now. i would hope that as soon as the senate passes its bill to us, which i expect to be shortly, that we would do a conference in pursuance of an agreement which will give us a fiscally

sustainable path for this country, give us confidence in this country that the congress the nations board of directors can work in coming to a balanced compromise with respect to how we move forward with the finances of america. now that we have, as i say, a senate-passed budget, a house- passed budget, a budget presented by the president of the united states, obviously there are things that each person in the country can disagree with and agree with, but presumably in each one of those budgets, i would hope that we would be going to conference as soon as possible so that we can address this critically .mportant objective i ask the gentleman if he has any information with respect to going to conference as soon as

we receive the senate bill, which i would expect would be shortly. >> i would say to the gentlemen, mr. speaker, i too am glad that we have seen the senate pass a budget. that is an accomplishment in and of itself, and the president finally has proposed his budget, so the gentleman is right. we finally have some things on the table that we can begin to discuss. i know that chairman ryan and chairman murray are already in discussions about a path forward. i look forward to the results of those discussions. with regard to the point earlier about setting priorities, it seems to me that the best way forward is to find areas where we agree and let's go make some progress on those things. again, the town is full of division and disagreement, but there are things we have in

common, in agreement in these three documents that i believe we can work on together. i yield back. >> i would simply observe, and he knows this as i do, that there will be an agreement on things that he perhaps does not agree with and things in agreement that perhaps i will not agree with. the secret, in my view, of getting an agreement is to accomplish the objective of bringing our finances to a fiscal a sustainable path that is credible, that is believed not only by the economy, by investors, by the american people, but also by the international community. aboute talked a lot confidence, as i have indicated in the past. you have talked a lot of confidence in the past. i think we all agree that our economy needs confidence to grow

as robustly as we want. toward that end, i can the gentleman tell me what plans we have at this point in time for the debt limit extension? i know there has been some discussion of bringing a bill to the floor which will deal with that issue. can the gentleman perhaps elaborate on what the plans are with respect to the budget, the debt limit that confronts us that will hit sometime around may 19th? i yield to my friend. gentlemen.the mr. speaker as the gentleman may know, the majority has committed itself, as the gentleman indicated, a to a budget that balances in 10 years. it is our desire that we can come to some agreement on how to do that. this is where the difficulty

again comes in, where the president's proposal and budget raises a lot of new revenues. by some estimates, it is $1 trillion in new taxes, and it does not ever balance. we certainly have a gulf between us, but it is our intention to work together to avoid the situation of default. we are intending to consider a bill that will ensure we meet our legal obligations and do not default on our debt, which i am sure the gentleman agrees with me is a responsible thing to do, and i yield back. >> i certainly agree that defaulting on the debt is an extraordinarily irresponsible thing to do and in fact we should not do it. in fact, we should not use it as a leverage point, in my view, to pretend that somehow a debt

limit without extinction is an acceptable political leverage point for either side. both sides have blamed the other for the deficits as we have confronted these debt limits. we have never come close, except in august of 2011, to defaulting, which was the first time, as the gentleman knows, we s&p.downgraded by that is an irresponsible policy. i agree with the gentleman. let me say that the advantage of a conference on this issue will be that transparently, the american public will see the debate. the gentleman projects a 10 year estimate of balancing the budget without revenues. i personally believe that is impossible. if there were no democrats in the senate or the house,

frankly, your side of the aisle could not pass either the appropriation bills or the revenue bills or tax cuts that are suggested in mr. ryan's budget, which would accomplish your objective. i think we will never know that, which is i think a happy circumstance on your side that that will never be put to the test. having said that, i would hope that we could get to a place where we say that the debt limit is not going to be subject to political maneuvering. thehermore, let me say that bill we have been hearing about, in the "wall street journal" there was an article that appeared just yesterday. a credit rating firm said tuesday it was not clear whether we could legally

prioritize bond payments over other types of payments. it was very likely that the firm would downgrade its aaa rating of the u.s. debt if we did so. in other words, even if we say we are going to pay the debts or, as some people have said, even if we're going to pay the chinese first and not invest in those things such as basic biomedical research, to which the gentlemen referred, to cut those as we pay the chinese or other creditor nations back for what we have borrowed, that would not be in the best interest in -- of the united states. instances, pretending we're going to go over the debt limit and avoiding a by paying the debt first and cutting other things in some sort of order, neither of those policies is

consistent with our responsibilities as members of congress. i would hope we would make it very clear, and i will tell you that we will do it in a bipartisan basis, mr. leader, that extending the debt limit -- i use a very simple example from my constituents. you go to macy's. you take out your macy's credit card and you buy two dollars worth of goods. -- two hundred dollars worth of goods. weeko home and the next you and your spouse are sitting around a table and say we are really in debt too much. we should limit it to $100. macy's sends you a bill for two hundred dollars. for $100them a check and say sorrywe have a credit limit. we have a limit too

and we are not going to issue you any more credit and we are going to sue you. that is our debt limit. ic thanuch more demagogue realistic. i would hope that we could make it clear that we're not goingo extend the debt limit in a bipartisan way, extended early enough so that it does not even become an item of consideration by either the ratings agencies or the international community. >> i would just respond to the gentleman by saying this in terms of the family going to macy's and making the charge of two under dollars. most families would also think it is -- two hundred dollars. most families would also think it is prudent to figure out how they're going to pay that bill before they go about incurring it. that is the spirit of the debt

limit. how are we going to tell the people that we are going pay off the debt we have gone ahead and incurred? i think a little bit of for thought here, planning into the future, how are we going to pay the bills is the emphasis. i have always agreed, as the gentleman said, the debt ceiling is something that is necessary for the operations of government. we will bring a bill forward that will ensure that we do not go into default, but i do think that we should be mindful of how we are going to tell the public we are going to go into the future and pay off these debts. the gentleman has many children and grandchildren. he does not want his kids, nor do i want mine to be shouldering the debt and paying our bills. really committing ourselves not to just borrowing more, not to just taking more

from taxpayer dollars, because we have done a lot of that this year already. the gentleman talks about the need to proceed with revenues. we already have close to $650 billion of additional static revenues, taxes that are accounted for because of the fiscal clef deal. it is not that there are no revenues in the mix here. i look forward to working with the gentleman. i appreciate his commitment to longevity in the country, sustaining economic growth or restarting its the we can -- restarting its so that we can sustain it. i yield back. toi think finding a way invest in the priorities of this country to which the gentlemen referred is to have a budget. that is the plan the gentleman refers to. the way to get to a budget is to go in conference and come to an

agreement. however, i will tell my friend what the problem we have had is reaching compromise. it is going to be necessary to compromise because as the gentleman observed and i understand, we have substantial differences. but if the differences continued to create gridlock and no action, those children of which you spoke and i speak are going to suffer. budget, as a's gentleman knows, has a 3: 1 ratio between cuts and revenues. that is essentially what most of the bipartisan commissions have recommended. i know the gentleman disagrees with that ratio, but it is certainly the president's view, which i share, that he has made a very positive proposal, whether you agree with it or not, and a number of your

members have observed that it is a useful document. given that context, hopefully we can go to conference. hopefully we can come to an agreement. hopefully we can find a compromise and put our country on the fiscally sustainable path we needed to be. >> i yield back the balance of my time. >> the house returns monday at noon eastern for mourning speeches and 2:00 legislative work. passed today, the house a bill that limits the authority of the national labor relations board. you can follow the house on c- span when members gavel back in next week. >> earlier today, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius testified on the budget request for her department. here is some of her testimony. >> online, this is the marketplace timeline for the exchange.

see is for the public to how they are on track. when i look at it, i see deadline after deadline the agency -- deadline missed. the final market rules regulation was messed. the payment notice was messed. -- missed. you announced a delay in the choice option for small businesses. basicso delayed the health care plan for year 5. these delays are having a real impact and real people are concerned about these delays. the failure of the agency to meet the deadlines raises real concern. do you have a plan b? do you have a contingency if the exchanges are not ready, up and running with a fully

informed public by october 1? >> as i answered before, congressman, we will be open for enrollment october 1 of 2013 and we will be enrolling americans across the country january 1, 2014. >> at this point, you have had no discussions about contingency plans? >> we have lots of contingency plans. >> for not meeting october 1? >> we are determined to be october 1. >> you can assure this committee that there will be no further delays in the implementation of exchanges? >> we are on track to meet the deadline. >> you can assure us? >> i can only tell you what i am telling you. we are on track to meet october 1st. i can't tell you exactly what will happen at every step along the way.

i can tell you that is the determination. >> you're not on track to meet it. that was the question. you are not on track to meet it. you have missed so many deadlines. thee are on track to meet october deadline. yes, sir. >> there will be no further deadlines best? no further delays? >> i don't quite know what that means. it might say on the paper -- it could. october 1 we will be open for business on october 1. delays, great news. no further deadlines messed, great news. >> the notice is two months late. is that being delayed again this week? next week? are we seeing another ongoing delay? >> that is not ours, that is the labor department's notice but i understand it is imminent.

that is not an hhs rule. >> thank you very much. >> prime time on the c-span that works, we will tell you span networks,c- we will show you the entire briefing with the health and human services secretary sebeilius. -- sebelius. and we will look at the veterans affairs budget with eric shinseki. the-span-3, the head of national park service discusses priorities for his budget. all of these programs start tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on the c-span networks. tennessee democratic congressman steve cohen posted and then deleted a message on twitter to singer cyndi lopper, including cindyhat called her "--

lauper, including one that he called her "hot." it to teach a lesson about journalistic standards. >> the reason i am here is because there has been a lot of ets andion about my tweak some discussion about my ability to tweet. tweeted exactly what i wanted to and deleted exactly what i wanted to. as ise in this age, discovered because of some very innocent tweets with my daughter, the best way to get

attention is to tweet and delete. show in memphis music. lauper's performance was hot. timberlake's. i one of the world to know about it, know about memphis music and know about this great production, and nobody would see it. --i put out a press release, and know about this great production. if i put out a press release, and nobody would see it. but i knew that if i sent a tweet and deleted it, it would bring publicity to this event unlike anything else i could have done. thinking of paul

newman in the movie "absence of malice." the old reliable source of the said i was sost" taken with the singer that i expressed my admiration but quickly came to my senses and deleted it. they are so reliable, they did not know that i deleted it intentionally. i came to my political sense as wasng time before the tweet ever created. i wanted the press to think about malice and that when they write stories they affect real people. they wrote about me and my daughter with malice and they hurt her and they hurt me. absence of malice used to be part of the journalism ethics course of columbia university. i think everybody should go back and watch it and see what

was being told there. reviewr columbia assistant editor said people forget that they are talking with actual people, people who have to live with the effects of what people write about them. that got journalism is not the kind of journalism we should have. people should be more circumspect about the things tweet is noteleted necessarily something that is harmful and that is why this press release will be tweeted and deleted. so people will see it. that is how you get press. does anybody have a question? >> it seems like this is a payback for your daughter. >> it is a bit of a lesson that the press should have learned before it happened. but having bit -- having been a

victim, it is a good idea to turn a negative into a positive. and have people realize that their actions do have long- lasting effects on people's lives. before trying to be the spokes are soon and to buy -- and to try to be cutesy, they ought to think about it. in the future, when people cd leakage suites -- when people see deleted tweets, they will think, is this something that they are ashamed of? rex you said you hope that this would publicize the event area these think you were successful in that or do you think this is a distraction? i want the world to come to memphis and listen to our music. it is one of our great attractions. soulve the rock and museum, sun records, one of our

great tourist attractions. on pbs, there will be [indiscernible] it is really phenomenal and people will remember this music and they will hopefully come to memphis. so it is good for my district. i publicize my district every chance i can. mentionede stories memphis music and the show. i think we have been successful in what we tried to do. , by yourat you will --ort, further the message by your report, further the message. >> i'm sure that you can imagine that some people won't believe you. i talked about it on monday on the floor.

wait till you see what i do this with with the press. there are a few other people i told. we will have something this week. >> what would you say your constituents might not appreciate that you're taking the time to trick them media, as you say? >> they will love this. promoting memphis music. i spend most of my time promoting memphis. , it'sok around here music. that is one of the things that memphis is famous for. do you think it is appropriate language to be using to a woman performer, for a member of congress?

that about said justin timberlake, you all would have said that i was gay. too, and so are the alabama shakes. [laughter] >> there is also the question of truth where people look at their lawmakers to be honest in all of their dealings. does this affect that in any way? >> she is a hot performer. i will see her on tuesday night. try a little tenderness is the song she sang. if you want to look at it and promote it in some other way, truth is in the eye of the beholder. >> did you get any for the reaction from cyndi lauper? >> not yet. and she is married, which i didn't realize. i googled her afterwards.

i will write her a note. when i went to the floor to do my one minute to my that was a -- to do my one minute, that was my continuation, we talked about thathow and he admitted justin timberlake did otis redding's "sitting on the dock that as an" i did opportunity to do my one minute and told him that he should have this into ms. lauper and the whole republican team should try a little tenderness with the president. recordant to have people in memphis. she has one of the top 10 new albums of 2010 and she recorded it in memphis. gave a worldwide shout out

to memphis. [indiscernible] >> i don't think she does. press are saying that the should be careful how we treat politicians because we treated her kind of out there. is this a little bit of art to seeing what you preach maybe? -- is this a little bit about preachcing what you teac maybe? >> i have gold records appear. he is one of my best friends. publicity is good. having people think about your music is good. purslane, the fact that

somebody might have thought that i thought cyndi lauper was attractive, i don't think that is a terrible thing to have said about you. birds do it, bees do it, you know. >> do you think that if extra credibility with the press at all? also, do you think that tricking the press into covering a story is the right thing to do? >> i think it is -- it is when the press runs a story on you that they get totally wrong and then they cad the did tweet and think -- and then see a deleted tweet and think that there is something wrong with it. the press needs to do a little soul-searching and a little research before they think there is a suggestive tweet going out there between two parties, particularly when one is married and one isn't. the press needs to see that and this is an opportunity for all

of you to take an extra look good as a victim, i think i should bring that forward and i think i have. i delete a tweet in the future, i don't think you all will jump on it. and the press release, people will see it. if you delete it, and people look at it, they think that this is something. immediatelyt you respond to press requests for comment? you also said that journalists didn't follow up on a good story, but i know that isn't true. many tried to pursue a further story to find out it was not affect your daughter. movie, newman, in the that character, the great script that was written by kurt lit he, he couldn't leaflet he did because it would hurt the

person. that person ended up committing suicide in that up. era people involved. and there was -- there are people involved during and there was a person involved and i could not come out to see something. that was the most important thing to me. -- that i was not talking to all of y'all was not about protecting my reputation. i think the guy up in philly did a nice job. more of you wanted to get more stories about my daughter and not about the rest of it. i daughter's life is private and my life and hers private and it will stay that way. it is nobody's as is. and -- it is nobody's business. and joe biden canto in the middle word. [laughter] that this may be a

smokescreen for something we have yet to find out. you tell us. is there anything out there that this is designed to distract from that is about to pop anywhere? airing -- no. >> i cannot think of anything at all. ?eace in the middle east nope. reasonable immigration deal? reasonable gun laws? something about yourself personally? >> no, i will probably take a nap, nothing special. i was up late last night. >> thank you very much. and on your trick.

>> i am a one trick pony. christ did you tell your daughter you -- >> did you tell your daughter you were going to do this? >> no. can you tell us who your date was? rex that is really nobody's business. my personal life is my personal life. >> you talk about that, but aren't you bringing your daughter back into the media by bringing this publicity to your self? x it is not about publicity. the story is not about me. the story is about the press and how they respond. and this is about memphis music. ratetory is about a musical presentation, a great cultural artform, a great city that is proud of its music, and a press that kind of look said

of the things. imean, really, it's amazing. made speeches on the floor about changes to the help, losing $1.6 million this year, the department of defense, protecting against cancer, alzheimer's, aids, parkinson's, those are the enemies. the department of defense should help recover 1.6 billion dollars. i don't think any of those viewed to videos have had in a more than 50 viewers. those are the real stories. i have been trying to work on that issue and other issues try to get memphis to be recognized as one of the president -- by the president as one of the cities that needs federal help. i think the hearing we had in the visitor center on tuesday where we talked about the amount i student debt, $1 trillion,

don't think it got any attention whatsoever. we are doing a lot of work on issues, but i don't think the press is seeing it. >> have you ever done this before? are there other tweets of yours that you found out weren't true or were intended to have a separate meaning? >> no. some misspellings. i deleted some tweets that were misspelled. i haven't figured out spellcheck on twitter. [laughter] i'm getting pretty good on this. some people suggest i should give up twitter. i think i have used it in a way that appeals has used it. but i kind of learned it. it is beyond twitter. in the absence of malice. , i have togle guy learn these things on my own and trial and error can be larger than a position i am in.

but i think i have done pretty good on my own. i have twitter for the well down now. do you plan on using this tweet and delete mode of attack basically in the future to gain more media attention? >> hopefully, you won't look at that anymore because you realize you'd don't know what the meaning is there. really, it is the sunshine foundation that i am upset about. this media has gone to. if they are going to delete something, they think you do to hide something. sometimes you broadcast it in the wrong arena. that is what happened with me and marnie. some he has an ipad and an ipod and a black area -- you get it together. but sometimes, it's a learning

process. i just put it on the wrong station. thank you all. >> thank you. on theght in prime time c-span networks, a look at president obama's 2014 budget request. it was announced earlier this week at the white house. on c-span, health and human services secretary se athletes adelia's arts about the -- human -- health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius. all of those tonight beginning at 8 p.m. eastern on the c-span network. on the next "washington

journal," armstrong williams talks about it efforts by the republican party to reach out to minorities. then karen wise on student loan interest rates which are set to double on july 1. after that, dr. patricia quinn, a developmental pediatrician who attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and why some in the schoolchildren are being diagnosed. "washington journal" is live at 7 a.m. eastern on c-span. award-winning documentary filmmaker ken burns was a featured speaker at the national press club lunch. he tells a story of five african american and latino teenagers who were wrongly convicted of raping a female jogger in new york city central archean 19 he -- in 1989. -- in new york city's central park in 1989. this is about an hour.

>> good afternoon and welcome to the national press club. i am a reporter for bloomberg news and the 100 ex president of the national press club. th president of6 the national press club. about thenformation national press club, please visit our website at press.org. on behalf of our members worldwide, i would like to welcome our speaker today and those attending today's events in our head table includes guests of our speaker, as well as working journalists who are club members. if you hear applause from our audience, i would note that members of the general public are also attending. so it is not necessarily evidence of a lack of journalism -- of journalistic

objectivity. [laughter] i would also like to welcome our c-span and public radio audiences. our luncheons are featured on her member-produced weekly podcast from the national press club available on itunes. and you can follow the action today on twitter using the #npc lunch. the lunch concludes, we will have an answer and question period. it is time to introduce our head table guests. i would ask you to stand up briefly as your name is announced. when marcus, documentary writer and producer with of the communications incorporated .ou cannon smith with nbc washington. mcpherson. , senior viceon president for television at the corporation for public broadcasting. , knightoints key regional home page editor for the washington post. sharon

rockefeller from a president and w dta, the local pbs affiliate. fitzgerald, project manager for financial and state news for the center for public integrity and the speakers committee chair. speaking -- skipping over our speaker -- melanie dubois 04 usa today. by poets, national reporter for bloomberg news. nikkei.i for and a freelance journalist and vice chair of the press club committee. [applause] in 1989, 5 harlem teenagers were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in new york city's central park. that sexual assault of a white jogger sport immediate frenzy --

sparked immediate frenzy and called for the conviction of the so-called central park five. despite the evidence that excluded them and no eyewitness accounts tying them to the crime. a serial rapist later admitted to being the perpetrator, but not until these young men served complete sentences of 6-13 years. in his latest documentary, ken burns tells the story through the vivid testimony in an unflinching and painful anatomy of wrongful conviction. the movie was written and produced with his daughter sarah behrens who wrote the book to lead to the films. sarah was only six when the events took place. when she learned about it after the teen's convictions were overturned more than a decade later, she was so taken with the story that she wrote her undergraduate thesis and then the book on the topic here the -- on the topic. of the justice

system and the press undermining the rights of five young men and condemned them two years in prison for a crime they did not commit." , when we screened the film here at the national press club, we were honored to have with us to of the central part five -- central park five who have been traveling with the filmmakers around the country to major film festivals. in addition to drawing praise from film critics and audiences, the documentary has and making use. a federal judge in february ruled the new york city may not look at outtakes, notes or other material from the film in their efforts to fight a $250 million lawsuit out by the central park five against the city. we will discuss this and other developments in our conversation with mr. burns who we are delighted to welcome back to the press club for his eighth appearance. thehas been called one of " most influential documentary

makers of all time." honored with a lifetime achievement award from the academy of television arts and sciences. he has won 12 emmy awards and received two oscar nominations. among them have been highly acclaimed documentaries about jazz, baseball, the brooklyn bridge, u.s. national park, and, of course, the civil war, which was the highest-rated series in the history of american public television. please join me now in welcoming back to the national press club to discuss his latest film mr. ken burns. [applause] >> thank you so much. it is good to be back here. i am thrilled to be back here. let me not bury the lead. on april 16, this coming tuesday, pbs will broadcast our two-hour film, the central park five. as phil would not have been

made without the help of an extra day or a of people, some of whom are in this room. it is important for me, before i begin, to acknowledge them. first, i would like to thank we ta, and production partners for the last 30 years. and particularly, it's ceo sharon rockefeller. to have been the best production partners anyone could imagine. we have been through thick and thin on a number of projects and we have counted on them having our back and they have had our back through the many decades that this association has gone on. i have been blessed to have that association. of anen to be one member extremely important family and that is public broadcasting. there is no other place on the dial where you can get the kind of quality work that happens only on public television without commercials. which is sometimes taken for granted, but incredibly important in our distracted

universe. we can actually dive deep into the subject in ways no one else can do. and we do it serving the public. it is the public rod casting service that we are about. and i am honored to be a small part of it and a little niche doing history in an extra ordinary network that spans the entire united states with more affiliates than any other network. it touches deeply into the lives of people, not just within sisk story very prime time schedule, but with continuing education and adult learning and early childhood things, even homeland security, crop reports, all sorts of things that help stitch our country together. it is by no means some elitist coastal institution, but something that is beloved in red states and blue across this extraordinary continent of ours very -- of ours. so i am

pleased to spend my entire professional life producing films for public rod casting. it is the only place -- for of the rod casting. -- for public broadcasting. it is the only place to be. we don't make these films without funding. as you can imagine, a film like this has some very dicey aspects to it. not everybody who is interested in the traditional historical work that we have undertaken havethese last 35 years been as excited about the possibilities of this as have the people who actually did fund it. and i have to acknowledge their support from the very beginning. without them, this literally could not and would not have been made. and that is also pbs, but also our long-time supporter and most of our films have been supported by the public

broadcasting. they have been there from the beginning of my career. they have been extraordinary in helping us fulfill our desires to make the variety of films that we have had the opportunity to make. they were in from the beginning. but when we surveyed the landscape of other possible funders, most shrank away from this very difficult subject, this recent history, if you will. one wasps stood out. the better angels society, which is a nonprofit group that was started to help us fund our historical exercises. in bobby and polystyrene jacksonville, florida -- and steom ind polly jacksonville, florida.

philanthropies have made the largest grant and indeed the largest grant i have received percentagewise for any film, about 75% of our entire budget. risk and amazing commitment and we can't imagine having lived through the last several years without them. i'm sorry, i don't think that there is anybody from atlantic philanthropies here. but we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. there are some missing people here. -- angela alluded to them. the first is my daughter sarah who has been on the road and is rushing back to take care of my granddaughter, her daughter. she is the author of all of this, not just of the superb book that she published in 2011 that her husband david mcmahon and i had the opportunity to see as the first pages were coming out of her computer and

realize what an extraordinary film this could also be in addition to a book, but she has been the author in the sense that, for more than a decade, she has carried and agonized over this story. she has been by turns of sestak and also outraged by it. and obsessed andurns also outraged by it. proudassure you, as her papa, she has had a fierce sense of fairness all her life. and there is something about the story that so offended herself -- her sense of fairness, not just in the classic sense that we feel as americans, that there should be a little lancome, not

just in the sense that things should just be fair and people shouldn't sulk and take their ball home, but in a deep human sense of fairness hearing this story, as much as it enjoins and gathers together the themes of importance in a historical moment, nonetheless also reflects on basic human things, of failure, mistakes from of atonement, of forgiveness, of reconciliation, of compassion. and all of those are in great abundance with sarah. and she kept us in the right direction. the rest of that us is a the mcmahon hearing is my son-in- law, her husband -- the rest of mc is dated mcmahon -- david .ahon he is my son-in-law and her husband. he is most responsible for the creative look and feel. he has worked tirelessly behind

the scenes for way too long and deserves the lion's share of the credit that went into this film . i feel, as i speak to you this afternoon, the absence, like amputated limbs that the gland it long after they are gone, my daughter and my son-in-law who deserve to be here, deserve to share this podium, deserve to receive whatever credit you might extend to the film. and if there isn't anything you don't like, it's all my fault. [laughter] also missing are five extraordinary individuals ver. antron mccray, kevin richardson , raymond santana, and corey wise. they are the central part five. if you were a member of the central park five in 1989, you are among the worst human beings on earth.

today, that is quite different. and to be counted among the central part five is to be isnted -- central park five to be counted among a band of brothers that represent the best of us, or present a kind of heroic forbearance in the face of unbelievable odds, who exhibit a startling lack of bitterness and anger, who have grown in the course of this immense and infuriating tragedy into extraordinary young man, who have graced our lives and become friends of our family and have been out on the road with us with a style and degree of articulation that i think those who were here last night, when we had the opportunity to screen the film, understand. they bring a special pathos to our understanding of the story and they aren't the direct connections to -- and they are

the direct connections to what happened durin. i look very much forward to our conversation. we, sarah, david and i had to animating questions come if you will, as we began this project. first is an obvious one and should be on the list of all journalists. part of this story is the utter failure in our profession to rise in this particular instance. how could something like this have happened in america at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century? how could this injustice have taken place? second, because their voices were stolen from them, ripped apart by police and prosecutors and then i never complained media interested in -- compliant media interested in -- if it bled, it bled -- they lost

their voice. we wanted to ask another question. who are they? could we in some ways not restore or make them whole -- that will have to come from other places -- but could we at least listen to them and find out who they are? we live in a country that is so dialectically preoccupied. we are so certain that if we make a distinction about the a red state you are or a blue state, male or female , rich or poor, gay or straight, that you live here or you live there come a that somehow, we will have the whole of you. and particularly, when it comes to race and class, we do a lousy job and we exploit the gulf between people and forget that each human life within the sound of my voice is as important and as full as any other life in

this room. unfortunately, that was stolen from the central park five. must bealso and foremost in our thoughts are not only the authors of this, sarah and dave, but also the five of them who are, in every sense of the world, real and complete human beings, who have no one intrials that this room could possibly even imagined and have come out as good if not better than anyone in this room. there, i did it. i made a distinction. let me tell you what happened. on april 19, it was a wednesday night among 1989, in new york a whitepark, a woman, woman jogger, and investment banker at salomon brothers, was brutally assaulted and raped and left for dead in the northern

reaches of central park. earlier that evening, a group or more 25, perhaps 30 young boys, teenagers, african- american and hispanic, enter the park. it was a wednesday night, a school night, but school was off the next day. there was a passover holiday and their parents had given them permission to stay out late. some had stayed behind and played basketball games at the projects. others had gone into the park with a group of people. most didn't know each other. they were going in -- they were going around doing something that is frequently called hanging around or whiling away ,he hours or, in the vernacular filing, spending time doing nothing. they proceeded to go through the park during some of them began to sort of harass joggers and icicle us, through stone ash .nd ice it lists, threw stones

they kept moving farther and farther into the park. they rolled a drunk. not all of them. this is a couple of people. it was watched by some of them. and then there was a serious assault, a felony assault made on a man who was beaten enough to require temporary hospitalization. and all of this was taking place over the course of sometime that early evening in the park. the police were notified as joggers and bicyclists came across them in the park and they came in sort of flash their sirens and broke up this crowd and they scattered and reconvened, some of them, and many of them went home at that moment. picked upegan to be by the police, including two of who would become the central park five, kevin richardson and raymond santana. and they were held along with a

lot of other boys for unlawful assembly. and they were going to be sent home and their parents arrived with a citation for family court. and that was it. and everybody was beginning to feel relaxed when, late that night, the woman's body was found near death in the northern reaches of central park. she was so close to death that it was assigned to homicide and they were certain she would die. and immediately decided that perhaps, and not unreasonably so, that these youths that they had collected and the others whose names they were collecting in the park were responsible for this crime. and then b can -- and then began this dissent into a hell that they could not imagine for these young men. some of them had been in the system before. some of them had committed crimes. some have lawyers and got out right away.

but the people who would eventually be called the central park five came from good, stable, middle class families. they had never been in trouble before. they had no idea what was going on. said only, the questions shifted from we will let you go to to your parents for this seemingly minor set of events to suddenly you are responsible for the brutal rape of this person. what takes place over the next 30 hours is one of the most horrific things that i believe has ever taken place in the american criminal justice system. two ofoys, children, them were 14, 2 of them were 15, and one of them was a develop mentally challenged 16-year-old who admits in her film that he felt and probably accurately that he was 12 years old that night. the police begin working on them. in one case, up to 30 hours with a young boy, without the benefit of a lawyer, often

without their parents present, without food or water. telling them over and over again what they had done, that they had their fingerprints. at one point, yusuf salaam said to us that they felt they were so angry that they were screaming at him, blowing smoke in his face, so angry that he thought they would take him out and kill him. they were petrified. her parents had also experienced a sort of crimes of being black or brown in a large metropolitan city as they had grown up. many were immigrants or recent arrivals in the city. we were petrified, too, did not know enough about their rights of maranda to stop the proceedings at any time, which would have ended it. and i would not be here had that happened. i would not be here if a parent had stepped in or a child had evoked his miranda rights to a lawyer. those that did, as i said, got off with smaller sentences, pled to what they had actually done. but these five, strangely

enough, the most innocent and unacceptably the most vulnerable within our communal justice system went through this extraordinary experience -- our criminal justice system went through this extraordinary experience of eating interrogated. it was like a firing squad. the cops would say we have your dna on this. we have your finger print on her pants. we know you didn't do it, but kevin in the next room is saying you did it and reminiscing is who is kevin i have never met him before. raymond, we think you are a good kid and he is saying that you did it. and if you say that you saw him do it, we will let you go. parents would come in and look after hours of hours and tell their kids to tell them what you want and they will let you go home. two boys said to us as men later on, all i wanted to do was go home and they were being dangled out the promise of being able to go home if they would only say this. , 30 inr several hours

the case of one of them, 16, 20, they suddenly arrived at a place where the cops felt they had gotten the story right. it was clear was that they didn't know anything about the crime. they were nowhere near it. it would describe the crime happening in the reservoir and the cop would say, no, no, no, and up near the lot. they not know what was going on. they were petrified. and they started to piece together confessions. at that point, the district attorney, elizabeth l turned on a video machine and standing detectives with arms folded behind them began to record their confessions. , coerced confessions. within each of these confessions are glaring contradictions. between these confessions, there are glaring contradictions. none of which attracted the

attention of the seasoned professionals, new york's finest, as they are called, who are responsible for finding the criminals in our society and who are coming in this case -- and who, in this case, failed to all of -- failed to entertain an alternative narrative and also tore apart the lives of other human beings. they were so focused and so excited that the crime of the century had been sold by them within the first few hours, they had gone out to the celebrated watering hole of delays and given themselves high-fives and raised a toast to each other that the crime of the century had been closed. what they did not disclose to themselves was that, two days before on april 20 -- april 17, 1989, a woman was assaulted and that assault was broken up by a man who she described as having fresh stitches on his chin. a young detective was tracked

-- was assigned to track down through the local hospitals who this person might have been. by the next day, they had his name. his name was mattias reyes. nobody followed through. mattias reyes committed the crime the next day, april 19, on the central park jogger. it went on while the cops and the prosecutors were focused on the horrible miscarriage of pinning it on the five. he went on to rape and assault many other women that spring and summer, including murdering a pregnant woman and her unborn fetus. he was eventually caught, not by the police, but i civilians who held him down until the police could come, -- could come during many of the police who worked on the case were police who had worked over the central park five. what happened,-- as the district attorney was gathering evidence, they found

at the crime scene a horrific and bloody crime scene, none of which was on any of the five boys and none of them on the crime scene, they had extracted a single piece of dna, a semen sample that represented the only forensic evidence that link another human being to the crime scene besides the poor victim lying near death. they then proceeded to try to match samples with the five. they did not match. they did not at that time begin to entertain an alternative narrative, knowing of the contradiction, knowing the fact that, as they still claimed they acted in good faith during the 30 hours of interrogation of a 14-year-old, saying that we did not suspect them. we just asked them what happened. it took a tally 30 hours to get the story straight out of their

mouths and onto a videotaped confession. use exelon's mother worked at parsons college and she asked use it so long as mother worked at parsons college and refused to let it go on so he did not make a video tape confession. but the others did and they are all terrified in the extreme. one would expect this moment in some other place in the united states of america. meanwhile, all hell is raking loose in the united states of america. this is the crime of the century. this appeal are tightly to our worst and basic fears of the other, those distinctions that we always make particularly of people based on color. these werewolf pack during these were -- these werewolf hack. these were while others -- wjo;ehilers. that is a term the police made up. they always said they they were

remorseless. they had taken the coerced confession of an african- american church which miller -- george whitmore, who coincidently died recently, the press said, wait a second, and investigated all of his claims of alibis and found they were true hearing he was exonerated before a lengthy amount of time. this,at led to maranda. because of the firestorm of outrage at this moment for my lead to the death penalty being reinstated in new york state. donald trump took out full-page ads in every one of the daily papers saying bring back the death penalty. , so-called reputable columnists, like attribute canon, said that the oldest of them -- this is, by the way, development only challenged corey wise -- ought to be taken and hung in central park and the others flogged as an example so we could make the park, which

is and has always been, a relatively safe place again. everyone accepted the verdict that they were guilty. we rang our hands and said what has happened to our society, what has happened to our family structures. governor cuomo basically backed off and said that nobody is safe. even locking your doors, you are not safe. it was all most like you is abandoning the city during a koch mocked on the city -- ed koch mocked on the street saying that, when there ran others say they are good boys, don't you believe them. the mayor of new york said. and no one relieved them. they had left the room and he realize what they had andy mealy recanted their confessions. they said it wasn't true and went on to try to assemble a defense. one public defender did an extraordinarily incredible job. the others were served by they wereounsel.

guilty, guilty, guilty throughout the world and the trial was an affirmation of it. even then, with no dna match, with the inconsistencies within the confession, one lone juror forhe first trial held out 10 days until, hugh know what? he got so much opprobrium from the other jury members, you know what he did? he decided he wanted to go home, just as the boys had done. they went to jail or upwards of 13 years between 7-13 years. these were men, children, boys who were offered a chance at a plea deal and didn't take it. dealt tosaid, if i was you, i would try to get the least sentence. or you could put me in jail for the rest of my life. did not understand that. i was not going to cop for something i did not do. every

time they went up for parole at these horrible institutions -- cory going to maximum-security prisons, and others for a few years going to juvenile facilities that are not much better, in which sex crime offenders are at and they are vulnerable in ways that no other prisoners are vulnerable. they all, at parole hearings, refused to admit their guilt which would have speeded up their exit from jail. they all attempted to get and several did get degrees before those programs were taken out it was a next or near a display of sort of willful advancement in the face of all of this. as cory says so poignantly in of them, he said, all scuffling is, the jumping on's, the stabbings, the trials and tribulations, he says, that

speaks volumes -- i think we know what scufflings are. we can wonder in a horrifying manner what jumped in use on mean. mean.t jumpings on cory was serving an adult sentence. they were had -- they were made to register as sex offenders and could not get jobs. a first-ne was not time offender, but a predicate felon, he went act to jail for drugs. finally, just before corey wise was being released from jail at auburn correctional facility, he bumped into mateja stratus who had been caught that same -- mateja's race who had been -- had been caughtw

that same year. they had actually served time together. after cory left, he went to the that guy did a it time for aguy mad crime i committed. so they take a dna sample and it matches. reyes starts getting up he tells of a case that nobody knew. even cops didn't note the tales that -- know details. the original to prosecutors, elizabeth letterer and linda first in, they reassigned new d .a.'s. they said, if i knew then what

i know now, i would not even have indicted is five. -- these five. that the jin unison udge vacate their convictions. and they -- and he did in a nanosecond. the story got almost no play. the reactionary "new york post was quote played it from the -- "new york post" plated from the cops point of view. saying they did it. suchecause it represents a gross failure on the part of all of you, those of us involved in the media, everyone else remained relatively silent and it permitted those reactionary forces to define the narrative for the next 10 years.

because when these convictions were vacated in december 2002, the following year, 2000 three, the five lost a civil suit against the city of new york. the city of new york has nearly a billion dollars to pay for such suits. they are settled out of court more often than not. and they do go to trial, they happen within a reasonable amount of time. we are now in the 10th year of lack of settlement. full depositions, full disclosure it -- full discovery has not taken place yet after 10 years. the five and their families have been written lasting -- have been requesting mountains of material that they can produce. the tech news cannot find -- detectives cannot find the notes they are legally required to save. first the language in the press is the language of jim crow in america, not the voice of a progressive northern city.

even last fall subpoenaed all of our outtakes and notes, seeking a cynical attempt to find inconsistencies. 9:01old us you entered at and you told ken and sarah and david that you entered at9:02. do you always lie? a one-y said that we are sided advocacy piece dream setting aside that this is the most realistic of all films we have done, even if it was an advocacy piece, so what? have they heard of the first amendment? was this country will not born on the idea that we can express an opinion? does every editorial board in every newspaper in the country fear the intrusion of the

government if they decide they want the help of that newspaper to help them solve a crime? we are not obligated to do that and the judge reversed some other pernicious decisions that had taken before that were onerous for filmmakers and journalists. the city immediately appeal than we are once again, like the central park five, drawn into this terrible story. i don't mean by ending their to suggest that we are the story. we are not. the most important test to be on the five. they have had their lives blasted. i don't know if any of you where youre remembers were when you were 14 or 15 or 16 years old durin. your lives were unfolding, who you will date, what kind of car you will get, what kind of job you will get. they will never get that back.

interest inve an what the settlement is that the city might give them or what the results of the trial, if they in fact insist that he go to trial, might be. we are only interested that there be a settlement, that there be a period at the end of a long run-on sentence of injustice that is intolerable in a modern society that has claimed from its birth that all people are created equal. that we say in our pledge of allegiance liberty and justice for all and it appears more and more like it is liberty and justice for those who can afford it and who have lighter complexion than the rest of us. so we leave this case hanging as our film is left hanging, wondering what will we all do? it is our response to the as journalists? it also has listened to try to do with what took place? ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, i am very sorry to

say that this rip snorting narrative, this incredibly gripping story that we have tried to tell, this dissent into hell is not a unique story in american history. it has happened yesterday and it will probably happen today and it will happen tomorrow. and in some part come in the stories that we tell each other, in the way that we report the ongoing facts of our lives, the way we superimpose a kind of frame around the random chaos events and call it art or quality movies or quality journalism, when do we stop and say enough when do we actually rise up and live out the true meaning of our creative, dr. king said, and judge people not i the color of their skin? but as you will see in our film, when you meet them, the content of their character. thank you.

[applause] >> to what do you attribute the failure of the press and media to investigate the report accurately? should thessons press takeaway for future cases like this? x we are in a funny era where we have to be both the conscience of the country and also businesses that make money. we can read polls and demographics and ratings and we know that, if it bleeds, it leads. this was so fantastic a story, so impossible a story, so perfect a story that the healthy

skepticism that is normally present and is sometimes still to this day present disappeared. it is what we can do differently. it is the lesson. to do our job. it wasn't done here. thehe most journalistic of many films you have produced, do you consider yourself a journalist/ >> yes. people have called me a historian and i except that collectively in the most widest and generous definitions of historian. i believe, in the course of collecting the evidence of history, one has to apply not only the historical standards of scholarship, which is in many cases much more rigorous -- remember, it was philip graham who owned "the washington post" who said that journalism is the first rough draft of history. is a wonderful turn of phrase,

except when you realize that no one ever turns in a rough draft. is awe see in this case really shoddy rough draft. by finding out the kind of historical record covered it. and the recent history and journalism, it is ongoing and we felt in this case, we removed it. it has an editing pace and places that is energetic and fitting. the hip-hop that was beginning to be developed, fitting the chaos and anarchy that seems to have the set of the city. and it is without a narrator. we did that in favor of the more rigorous journalistic presentation. only a hand you of internal title cards that advanced the

-- only a-- onlyn handful of internal title cards that advanced the materials. >> the film takes us back to 1989 and talks about the rush to judgment by the media, the public. do you recall your own response back then? >> i live in worked in a little village in new hampshire but in the case of the civil war because i wanted to work with an editor, i did the editing in new york city and commuted weekly. i was in new york when this happened. one could not help but be buried in the avalanche of coverage. it was on every local news station, every national news, every tabloid. they were all in sense competition -- in the tense competition. it was hard to miss.

felt like what has happened? the sons of falling in a bottomless pit. in ae sense of faling bottomless pit. when they got the convictions returned, it got such little coverage. the city still maintains they finished off what reyes began or they started what he finished or they must have done something or we were just acting in good faith. thethey vacillate between argument to fit the absurdity of the situation. all of them are fraudulent. the reason why we begged them to participate in our film, they could not answer any of the questions we would ask them about this case. --

,> a person asked at the time to the journalist have access to the confessions? today has seen the inconsistencies that were clear now when he watched the film? >> i was my daughter was here. she would know instantly. i'm not quite sure. obviously they were played in their entirety at the trials and journalist covering the trial. many could have pieced it together. the one juror we interviewed for the film, the one holdout, with smart enough to see what was going on and feeling that the detectives were lying saying they did not consider any of them suspects it was crazy. they just ask them questions, what happened? this was horrible. they have been available from the moment the trial, if not before. thehe film does mention other victim, the victim of

rape in central park but she is not interviewed in the film. what reaction has she given? >> i do not know if trisha -- she herself wrote a book called " i am the central park jogger" and detailed her recovery. she has no memory of what happened. when she woke up after several days, weeks, the first people she met besides her family and the medical team with the police and prosecutors who filled in this permanent neurological gap she has about what took place that night. the goodness she remembers putting on her jogging and nothing until she woke up. thank goodness. here all of a sudden she is about to go public for the first time, one can imagine the agony of the decision. she learning the narrative she believed for so long did not actually happen that way.

several times during the production, asked her to participate. a prospective her decision not to. respected her decision not to. having seen the film, there is never a moment when we don't actually return again and again to her extraordinary recovery and progress and understand it was first and foremost a primary victim to which we added six more, five more and their families. --a >> what happened in prison? what are the central park five now? are any of the police remorseful? maybe you can give us an epilogue. >> the police we investigated themselves after the district attorney re-investigated and

moved to vacate the convictions. the police investigating themselves -- they found they had done nothing wrong. except as jim dwyer pointed out in the film, got the wrong guys and let the guy continue to rape and murder subsequent to that. there has been no remorse expressed. it is been the exact opposite, a sort of contempt for the five and their extraordinary journey of deliverance from this hell. ---k's what about >> what about the five man. can you tell us where they are now? pre-k's they are a remarkable group of human beings. -- clackclacks antoine who do not agree

to appear in the film, we are only allowed to record his voice, changed his name, escaped to maryland and then the deep south where he works as a forklift operator. he keeps his head down. pays his taxes, as he said. take care of his kids. feels somebodyl will come and grab his shoulder and say come this way. contact within raymond every day and were able to lord him out for the closing lure him out for the closing night of the film festival. all still inr are new york. all essentially in the same neighborhood. yousef is perhaps the most successful. he has a good paying job. he does it. he has two kids.

he is an amazing human being and a great father. raymondin and raymond, works for an employee's union. i can't remember where kevin is. they come up with -- they come out with us frequently. bc them a lot. korey too. he was the oldest. he is now 40. he has been on disability for a long time and in some way struggles because of these disabilities that the rest of not -- have not. that theyg thing is are alive. i think the intention was they would not make it through this. no conspiracy. that in the era of the new jim crow, it was assumed they would disappeard t -- mistake of the fact that they

got the wrong guys would disappear. . heroic perseverance i wish i had it myself. you talked about the film becoming a press freedom centerpiece. what was it like having your work under subpoena and having to fight that as well. clacks --ark blessing a missedxec bd there isme time, something that struck at our guts. there was that feeling that you had sometimes. when you're driving too fast and easy the blue lights behind you.

but this was serious. this meant something. efforts, felt on our particularly the irony that we sont so long and had been diligent in asking every six months for the cops and the prosecutors involved please comment. some wouldn't even honor us with a return phone call to say no. unanswered jsut bust be emails and voice messages. at this would be important for their investigation. and they could and had rights to this because this was as they put it, a one-sided advocacy piece. you just felt this is kafka all over again. about the defense lawyers? where were they? why didn't they protect their client at the time, establish a reason not to infind these boys guilty at the time?

>> it is a sad aspect of the case. except for the appointed attorney for antron mccray. ultimately he was found guilty and went to jail through the others were friends of the family your yusef salaam's attorney was a divorce lawyer who was incompetent. peter rivera handled raymond santana's case. he was out of his depth. that servedtornyey equally more political. at the time, everyone assumed they were guilty. they were guilty, they had confessed. so the question is what soapbox this might represent for one attorney or what could you do to mitigate this for another attorney? forgetting that during them right in the face was all the evidence that they were not

using, the fact that they were someplace else when the assault was taking place in the park. thise weren't adding together because the crime was so lurid, the coverage was so in the african-american papers bought into it. most of the relatives shunned them and often sized these five boys. the tragedies within each of the families are show -- so shakespearean that it is hard even in a limited time to recount them. each of them suffered and the obvious way society and tended them to suffer, by going to jail. but also within the losses in their own families. death of people who never saw them exonerated, mothers and --ers, parent letting up, paren't's splitting up.

uif antron's father had said s tick to your guns, he was not have done it. his parents broke up. got outonciled when he of jail. it was only later after the painful memory of seeing his father lying dead that he realize what forgiveness could be,. and antron have to go to his grace with all that was [indiscernible] father saidana's don't stand on the street corner, go into the park, it is safer. and he starts to break down and cry, realizing the face -- the fate he commended his son to. >> i have a couple of

housekeeping manners to take care of. first of all, i will like to remind you of our upcoming speakers. april 15, we have the president of iceland who will address the global race for resources in the arctic. the director of the office of national drug control policy. april 19, the postmaster general of the u.s. who will discuss the challenges meeting the evolving demands of the nation's postal service. this is the eighth time that mr. burns has come here to speak at the national press club. we can schedule the nights whenever you're ready. each time, we are reminded not only that he is an outstanding omega who helps us reveal much about our world but he is also an outstanding speaker -- each time, we are reminded not only that he is an outstanding who helps us reveal

much about our world, he is also an outstanding speaker. gifted in the use of the podium and microphone. when he visits, he not only delivers an epic beach each time but in doing so, he reminds us of the great speakers who have come before him such as our first speaker, franklin roosevelt, two are just like -- to artists like hitchcock. he is truly more than our guests t today. part of oure club and our mission. today at the time when we would normally give you your eighth national press club coffee we have decided you not going to give you another coffee mug. you are going to recognize the contributions i make an honorary member of the national press ng to-- we are goiu

recognize the contributions you by making you an honorary member of the national press club. clack >> thank you. >> we still have to answer one more question. this is the ken burns film without ken burns'voice. the retail -- will we hear your voice in the next production? >> i never actually put my voice in the film. it is been narrated by somebody else but the narrator's voice in the editing room has been mine. do as a convenience in our society that gets everything down to 140 characters. this is a film by sarah burns and david mcmahon and also ken burns and all of my films share coproducers and directors of

equal importance and they should be acknowledged. i was particularly today at this great honor that they were here with me now. 20. particularly today at this great honor that they were here with me now. thank you. for coming today. i will like to thank the national press club staff, including the broadcast center for organizing today's events. you can find more information about the national press club and get transcripts and video of today's events at press.org. thank you. we are adjourned. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

>> tonight on the c-span networks, and look at president obama's 2014 budget request, announced earlier this week. on c-span, health and human services secretary in sibelius talks about her department $80.1 billion request. c-span2 looks at the veterans affairs budget with secretary

ericsson psyche. on c-span three, the head of the national parks service is gus's priorities for his budget -- hisusses priorities for budget. beginning at 8:00 eastern on the c-span networks. yesterday the senate voted 68-31 to begin formal debate of legislation -- gun legislation. we will hear more about that now and where the bill goes from here. this is about 40 minutes. >> ed o'keefe of the congressional report of the washington post, thank you for being here. what is the significance of thursday's vote? >> that the senate will talk. that is basically it. the debate will begin tuesday a series of measures. they will start with a big one announced this week. it would expand the background check program to just about

every commercial sale and exempt most private sales. this was something they needed to go to proceed to a formal debate of the actual legislation. it is expected that proposal will have enough. what other amendments will be considered? we believe the controversial assault weapons ban will be the second memo proposed the democrats can hold a vote and move on. there is a vote to make changes to the part regarding gun trafficking or the practice of knowingly buying a weapon for someone who is not supposed to have one. from there, who knows. we could see all sorts of different ideas, perhaps reciprocity of concealed permits across the country. or changes to have the government supports mental health programs. we expect weeks of debate on this. there is a recess at the end of april through the first few days of may.

if they do not finish it then, they will come back when they return. o'keefe, tell us about this amendment by senator mansion of west virginia, to me a pennsylvania. pennsylvania. >> they will bring it up tuesday. essentially they will have debate on it. they will have it up or down debate. it is believed they will have enough support to perceive. i'm concerned about any infringement on second amendment rights that we have written -- what we have written will not do that. to like-mindedl senators and both parties to say there is nothing here you can support. we have made sure there is nothing being done that would seize weapons or make it difficult for someone to buy one. they're also pushing the fact that this will make make it more equitable for gun dealers, licensed gun dealers versus people who sell weapons at gun shows.

they're saying we're trying to decode a playing field. >> has harry reid given any whether there will be a limit on the number of amendments. >> that is the big unknown. there were enough republicans who voted for this on the assumption he will just about lau everything. i think he understands that not only are republicans interested in that, there are enough democrats interested. guns is an issue that breaks geography than ideology. you have a lot of democrats facing reelection next year. and western states. in western states. they need to show their constituents home they were part of affair and exhaustive debate on this issue -- of a fair and

exhaustive debate on this issue. and the end, depending on what's in the final bill, they will .ast the vote you have to lose allow several votes on some most controversial amendment on either side of the issue to get my vote via said most of this week, if you have an idea to strengthen or weaken the law, bringing forward. but if republican start to present some amendments that are seen as poison pills or weight to strike down the law, then you might the democrats say hold on the second, let's not do that. >> you mention they will come from both sides of the process. senator reid did say we would the in assault weapons ban. what do expect to happen with that? he did notready said think it will have much more than 40 votes. the other controversial proposal sought by gun-control groups would limit the size of ammunition magazines. states have now passed limits,

most notably in the -- most notably marilyn. restrictions on the size is also likely to fail. at least those democrats supporting those measures can say we tried. the president has asked for that as well. everyone will remember his dramatic turn during the state of the union where he said these proposals deserve a vote, they will get a vote that they are not expected to pass. relativesd congress of victims killed at sandy hook and relative of combatants -- relatives of gun violence in places like chicago. how is that momentum going to be sustained? will it be sustained? this could stay -- take weeks. 8 -- 10 victims from newtown.

most active and vocal from the start. given there are weeks to go in there subtly different incidences across the country that have compelled the and family members to come forward, it is likely we will see grounds coming every week. there are enough groups and incidents and people interested in talking that we will likely see them. i suspect as we get closer to a final package, you will see a .uch more dramatic families spent most of the time camped outside the chambers in connecticut when the state legislature in connecticut passed their bill. i suspect they will do something similar here because it was such a dramatic demonstration of their push for this route to put himself in front of lawmakers, if they can do that to some extent, they will. senator blumenthal and senator murphy, both of them of connecticut, they have said the most powerful advocate for this are the advocates of those children -- also the parents of

high d a pendleton -- hadiya pendleton.she marched in the inagugural paradd e and then was killed a week later in chicageo. when the parents come forward and try to talk to senators, that seems to work. a lot of senators have taken the meeting. even harry reid said, i do not want to meet with these people, because i knew it would be a difficult meeting, but i did. they made their point. some of the meetings have gone very well. others have been a little more emotional. host: we sell republicans voting to move forward. some of them did vote to proceed. do we expect to see any sort of oral filibuster him any sort of stalling on the senate floor? guest: that is what we were expecting this week. there was a threat from at least 14 senate republicans led by senator mike lee of utah, marco rubio of florida, mitch mcconnell, the senate minority reader. they threatened to filibuster this, but so quickly did 16 republicans come forward to say, no, i will not stand in the way of doing this, that they dropped

the plan. -- dissipated last night they we anticipated last night they might try to force 30 hours of debate on proceeding to the actual bill. these are the crazy procedures we have. they said, no, go ahead. at some point, depending on how the amendment process goes, we suspect they will try to do something to read again, the longer harry reid allows for it to go, the more commitments he perceived -- he allows to have on the up or down votes. the longer they are likely to hold off. mike lee has said, all we are trying to do is to make sure that that there is thoughtful consideration of this him and second amendment rights are not infringed upon. if that happens, perhaps he will hold off. jeff flake, republican from arizona, said, for me, this is about process. harry reid told me there would be an open process. i trust there will be. as long as there is, i am all

for proceeding. host: ed o'keefe, let's go to the phones. wayne in west virginia, a republican color. caller: thank you for accepting the call. how are you today? i am -- guest: i am well. caller: it is not the guns that are killing people. it is the culture in this country. will they then all the cars in this country because people get killed with them? guest: several senators, republicans and democrats, have made that point. it is not just about guns, but also mental health, mass violence. that is part of the reason why the mansion-to me agreement includes -- manchin-tommey includes a commission on mass violence. it will perform like the supercommittee were like the 9/11 commission did where they will have a panel of about a dozen experts on mental health, guns, on school safety, members of the entertainment industry to come together to put forth

proposals on one of -- what else congress could do besides reducing -- restricting firearms. congress would give them an up or down vote when they produce suggestions. perhaps some lawmakers will pick up specific proposals and try to push those three. manchin and tommey made it clear, the reason they are willing to have a debate is because they know there will be amendments to address mental health concerns, restricting access to people who are not supposed to have them, whether they are mentally ill or criminals, and perhaps some concert -- some discussion about mass violence in the media. host: felix is on the line in north carolina, on the democratic line. caller: good morning. how are you on this beautiful day? guest: doing well.

caller: best country in the world -- i am glad we are able to talk freely without getting shot at by the government. i am 100% disabled so please bear with me. first of all, the constitutional amendment will restrict government powers over the people. the second amendment has two well -- to words into their, well regulated, which gives the government an ability to readily. my question is, how do i know that you are a law-abiding citizen? that brings up number 3 -- the al qaeda spokesman on the top of the fbi spokesperson list has a youtube video talking about the exploitation of background checks so they can get weapons to attack america with. my last point here is, i have been in america all my life. i am next to fort bragg. i will be honest with you. anywhere in america, being a

good capitalistic society, i can get you a firearm illegal or legal in an hour. why don't you give me a comment on those? america, have a great day. it is good to be un-american. -- an american. host: felix, the three things you brought up will be the parameters discussed in the coming weeks. concerns about the expanse and purpose of background checks, concerns about the availability of weapons on the street, concern -- there has been a lot of talk about the video clip -- concern that terrorists are trying to or have exploited the loopholes. then a broader discussion about mental health concerns. you encapsulated it beautifully. i can tell you that lawmakers are hearing those types of concerns and are very eager to talk about it. host: trenton, north carolina,

jerry, an independent. caller: my point here is that the gun legislation they are talking about is starting to slip over from being a second amendment infringement to being a fourth amendment infringement because when you start looking to people's or satellite -- looking into people's arsenal lives, -- personal lives. i am a gun owner. the state of north carolina, we have acheron checks for any firearm purchase. that takes place at all gun shows. there is always a deputy there to do the background check on the spot. we do not have issues like this. we are law-abiding citizens. we follow the law and the rules. we do not have the issues that it seems like other states have with the mass murders. it is like the other man said -- what about people out there driving drunk? what if somebody takes a stick

and beat somebody half to death with it? as an assault weapon at that point. host: let's get a response. guest: you mentioned concerns about privacy. there are concerns about the possibility of what happens when a state reports that somebody is mentally ill and unable to own or get in touch with a firearm what happens, if, for example, that registry is public, and insurance companies start reviewing the registries? they find out somebody they are covering is on the list, and then they charge higher premium. that something brought up --was something brought up by a senator from your state. is there a proposal that would shield insurers or bar insurers from looking at people on these lists? that is an interesting wrinkle in this whole debate. i suspect there will be debate about it. host: we have comments coming in on twitter relating to this

discussion -- then we see a conversation going on about gun shows and what they are really like to read dennis says -- guest: that is a concern that some republican senators posed to the plan. what the plan would do is require back run checks on any weapon that is sold over the internet or advertised on the internet or advertised in the newspaper or a plaque or somewhere, but anyone having an e-mail exchange about possibly buying a weapon is exempt from the program. as one senator pointed out, what is it to stop somebody from going into the gun show, adding the guys business card, sending him an e-mail and saying, meet me outside an hour after the

show closes, and i will buy a weapon from you -- from you? that is the gun show parking lot loophole that they are concerned about. host: a conversation on twitter about the politics of this -- let's turn to comments made by speaker john boehner made yesterday -- yesterday when asked about whether the house would take up the senate bill. [video clip] >> our hearts and prayers go out to the families of these the dems. i fully -- victims. fully expect the house will act in some way, shape, or form. but to make blanket commitment without knowing what the underlying bill is i think would

be responsible on my part. the senate has to approve a bill. i made clear if they produce a bill, we will review it and take it from there. >> have things changed, the mindset of people appear, about guns? it has been -- >> it has been an issue for my 22 years in congress. the thing we have to remember is that laws are only as good as our citizens willingness to obey them. law obeying citizens to obey them. criminals do not. in addition to that, we've got a system of laws that are not enforced yet. i would think that before we begin to add more rules and regulations on law-abiding citizens that we at least expect our law enforcement personnel and the department of justice to enforce the current law, which they are not doing.

host: house speaker john boehner. at o'keefe, what might happen in the house? uest -- guest: they are staring across the capital and what is happening in the senate. nobody really wants to move until we get a sense of what is realistically possible coming out of the senate. a lot of members of the house take cues from their state senators because many of them is to serve in the house for one thing, and they also have a pretty good gauge of what their state right be amenable to actually moving forward with. the fact that happen to me got involved is notable as he had not been a player -- that pat tomey -- toomey got involved this week is a big deal. a lot of his colleagues said, we support what he is doing. we think it is something that

could work in the house. that was a critical piece because it potentially boxed -- bought the sole process sometime and political capital capital in the republican-controlled house. there are three or four dozen republican congressman who represents suburban districts around places like cincinnati, chicago, cleveland, new york city, ime, -- miami, that if they do not engage in a debate, you could see them face some real problems next year. my colleagues looked at this yesterday for today's paper. there you are. it is a fantastic look ahead. what you are potentially seen is some pressure on the suburban house republicans where the democratic congressional campaign committee already plans to target. they may be the ones to tell speaker boehner and the house judiciary committee, no, we need to debate this.

we need to have a conversation as if we do not, my political life is on the line. host: a tweet following up on what speaker boehner had to say well, minority leader nancy pelosi was asked during her news conference about the comments speaker boehner made regarding law enforcement and the lack there of. let's hear her response. [video clip] >> it saddens me because obviously we should enforce the laws of that we have. there is no question about. none of us have said that. the most recent supreme court decision on guns recognizes that there is a role to be played to regulate, if that is the word, guns. the heller decision relating to the district of columbia. but that is not enough.

that is not enough. i do not know how we can show our faces to these families or even look ourselves in the mirror if we do not take something more seriously -- as i have said, any one of us as members of congress, democrat or republican, and ebuddy, who would stand in front of an assault on our children to protect them from any attack, we should have the political courage to stand out there to protect them from gun violence as well. host: minority leader pelosi in the house good at o'keefe, questions being raised over enforcement of existing laws. guest: that is a big element. the justice department certainly has several different gun laws on the books. the publicans and democrats both point out that enforcement of them as not necessarily been as good as it could be. i think the justice department would say, if you give us more money -- more money and manpower, perhaps we would do a better job. we will see whether or not that happens throughout this process. there has been a lot of talk

about changing gumballs. i have not seen a significant proposal to give the justice department more money or hiring ability to deal with this. one piece of the senate plan would give about $40 million to the justice department program to help school districts ramp up their school security programs. there was not anything about enforcing the laws or making sure that doj has more money in place. i suspect especially in the house, once a debate against, they will drag in a few justice department to explain how well they have been prosecuting gun laws on the books and why it is that perhaps they have not been doing as they could. host: let's hear from aaron in ventura, california, a republican. caller: thanks for your show. i wish you could move it a little closer to prime time, -- prime time. guest: you are up early. [laughter] caller: i just wanted to ask, on this whole gun control issue, i

do not understand the logic -- you've got chicago and new york as perfect examples of any kind of gun control. where is the logic of any of these arguments they are bringing up? i think it is just another diversion that is created for the media, knee-jerk reactions to violence close at home, and it diverts the public's attention away from a bunch of other important issues that have a huge potential for violence right here in this country and other countries, like afghanistan, north korea, or the issue of our economy or all the deals we've got going with communist china. after 68,000 people get killed in vietnam, and countries like

that -- those are pretty big issues i think. host: let's get a response from ed o'keefe. guest: others have made that point about urban gun violence and whether or not the laws are being properly enforced in those states, especially since those states already have pretty strict laws. host: barry in louisiana -- in louisiana, robert, a democrat. caller: this gun controlled -- debate is driving me up the wall. they keep talking about eric holder running guns. open up and just sell guns everybody. just sell guns, go back to the western days, and let everybody

toed guns. i guarantee you we will have gun control in this country because when people start bumping up against each other and start killing each other like that, in this gun control thing will come to an end. all we've got to do is let guns be legal all across the land. let drones be legal to. then we will have a western- style society. i guarantee you, if people run around with these aar =-15's, they will say, pow, pow. let's take them off the streets. that would end this whole conversation. host: is there any talk about loosening gun laws? guest: states have done a few different things to make it easier to carry weapons in certain places. the one that sticks out his arkansas where they passed a law that said if a church permits it, you can carry your weapon and to church. they made it easier to carry weapons onto college campuses. similar proposals are being considered in different states. they shielded the lists of people with concealed carry permits.

south dakota, for example, passed a program that permits eligible people to carry a weapon onto a school permit -- school campus if they underwent a training program so they can provide protection if necessary. that would allow teachers and guidance counselors and janitors to do that if they so choose. there has been something like 1500 pieces of legislation proposed. most restrict rights but mississippi and other states, wyoming as well have made it easier to carry weapons into certain places or at least clarify where you can and also to restrict access to the people who do have them. that was in a newspaper that published names of those who had concealed weapons and that was looked at. host: will the n.r.a. be

targeting mansion and too manyy? he tweets that not fighting for coal miners. >> he said we have worked together on a host of issues when i was governor and now that i am here in the senate, i know where they are and they know where i am. both of them say this is probably their best chance to get some things changed that they have been seeking for years. especially for someone from say, pennsylvania who has to travel to canada and go through new york and they have a whenen in their car. this allows them to do that without getting wrapped up in a legal position while in new york. allowing a gun shop owner to

travel, these are the types of things gun shop owners have pushed for, for years but this is probably best they can get in a current situation and said they should publish the mansion- too manyy proposal and put it up on the website and said i suspect when they read it they will like what they read. >> let's take a look at what harry reid said. \[video clip] >> we have done many things in the last several months about how the senate cannot operate. i so appreciate the members on the other side of the aisle. especially john mccain. on a sunday show said i don't think there should be a filibuster on this. john mccain has been a leader in this country for 31 years.

people respect his opinion, and i am grateful to all republicans who joined with us to allow this debate to go before us. now the hard work starts now. host: majority leader harry reid hears this, a bipartisan breeze begins to waft through congress. ed o'keefe, what's going on? guest: well, it's only one week in the history of kong. i think having talked to a lot of senators about this. they look, if this is how things are going to work, if they are going to be -- there are going to be thoughtful, extensive talks on these issues and if it continues on to immigration and budgetary concerns then i have no reason not to vote for at least a formal debate of the issues. that's what the senate is supposed to be and that's what they said. i'm here to debate on the issues

of the day and vote on it after it's been debated. that's something that hasn't happened in recent years and that cuts across geography rather than ideology. i think harry reid understands he has to do this. john mccain makes these statements and 16 republicans that were willing to proceed with debate. it's shocking to think the senate is following the rules. >> ed o'keefe the congressional reporter for "the washington post" used to write to two chambers blog and now writing for "the fix.? they have combined efforts and joined forces. he has had experiences working for "the washington post? including writing for the federal government in the federal eye after covering the 2008 federal campaign and a producer and still an anchor for "washington post" radio and as an overnight editor so you have had all the experiences from beginning to end. >> yes.

host: from the "washington post" that the point. let's go to richard on our independent line. caller: good morning. i don't own guns. i don't really care about gun laws. but it seems like the media is all the television news stories seems to set off these people in waves. and host: who do you mean by "these people," richard? andre: disturb people who commit the crimes. so if we need an editor in chief, i could volunteer for that. because the first amendment really doesn't apply if people are dying. of course, i would give a waive or two, to ed and libby. you guys are great. guest: people have made that point. we'll see if there's any discussion of sort of how the

first amendment bumps up against the second amendment. and causes some of this violence. and i think the fact that there's discussion of a commission or commission on mass violence is sort of a way of opening the door to a discussion of this outside of this. host: we see this in the mansion-too manyee proposal. -- mansion-toomey proposal. guest: the way they see this or the way they have sold it to each other is if we find a bunch of people who can go sit in a room and hash out here's the, a lot of with which people this morning have been talking about and if they come up to us with a unanimous set of recommendations and surveyed the country, why

wouldn't we at least look at the possibility of taking these recommendations and turning them into legislation? it also essentially buys this issue more time. once the senate and has acted on this it maycom fell congress to come back after the 2014 elections and discuss it. the fact that school children were targeted in newtown now makes it an issue that can be discussed more openly to ensure such a thing doesn't happen again. so it's designed to buy congress some time and allow others to discuss it outside the realm of congress. host: republican, john, hello? caller: good morning. there's three things the i would like to safe. first that the connecticut shooter murdered his mother. he stole her gun.

he stole her car, and then he drove to a school and murdered 26 other people. the law they are talking about there's not a law they are talk about that would have stopped him or loughner or holmes because none of them had been adjudicated mentally ill. then it's ludacris to think somebody is going to break into a house, steal guns and take them and trade them for drugs and that a background check is going to be done on the illicit trade of those weapons. host: john, we see a comment that says none of this has to do with gun control or keeping anyone safe. it's about the expansion of federal power and scope. another person whose thought was similar to yours was the

minority leader mitch mcconnell. let's take a listen to what he had to say yesterday before the vote. \[video clip] >> i believe government should focus on keeping guns out of the hands of those with mental issues that could cause them to be a threat but the government shouldn't punish law-abiding citizens but unfortunately, s 649 has the focus entirely backwards. host: ed sned guest: -- host: ed o'keefe? guest: he is a number of republicans that said they would have tried to block this. what he does is sums it up. the focus on guns as opposed to mental health and why it is people decide to act out is something that they don't think is necessary covering this bill. but they say we are going to

have a conversation. host: democrat. welcome. caller: good morning to you and your guest. the debate about the gun issue, i've heard a lot regarding gun owners and their fear that their right to bear arms is going to be abridged and it says a well- regulated militia being -- the right of the people to bear arms. if you look at the constitution, libby and your guests, what am i missing in reading the constitution and section 8, article i to provide for the -- the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions. here the founding fathers and slave owners, what insurrections are they worried about? slave insurrections. we have no more slavery in this

country and in terms of invasions we have an army and if you want to look at the drug wars, look at those invasions to protect us from the influx of drugs coming into our country. the second and last sentence to provide for organizing and arming and disciplining the militia and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the united states. reserving trick or treat united states the employment of officers and militia according to the discipline prescribed by congress. i pray that the supreme court would adjudicate the constitution as it's read that we would read the constitution and that our lawmakers would follow and legislate according to the great document of our country. host: all right. let's take a look at the second amendment as we get a response

from ed o'keefe. guest: i like the fact that people have copies of the constitution and read them so closely. all of the callers are aware the debate could potentially head and i can assure you your lawmakers are hearing from you and hearing what you have to say and i think there's a real eager necessary to discuss this which is why you will hear the balance of april and into may discussions of this. host: and the court has ruled that americans have a right to keep loaded guns at home. now may decide whether and to what extent there's a right to take them out and about. the court is expected to consider when they will hear from a handful of residents whose applications for licenses to carry them will be turned could be. guest: and there is talk of allowing one's state-issued concealed formente apply everywhere else. certainly, that will be a big factor i suspect in this debate.

host: let's here from jacob. independent caller. are you with us? last chance. we'll move on from there. ed o'keefe, what are you going to be watching in terms of signs of how and ultimately how thingsal ultimately shape up. u taken us through the timeline of things, but what are you going to be looking at? >> which amendments get proposed and which ones rise to the top and which ones are harry reid and democrats allowed to be voted on and do they try pull any procedural maneuvers to make it difficult for some to pass and if that starts to happen it may start to poison the well and make it dot pass anything. they run the risk of seeing certain propose also this would really water down the bill. the president himself made it clear in talking about the mansion-toomey agreement that it's not what he wanted but at

leastal appreciated the fact that the congress was working together in a bipartisan fashion. this fact that they got through this week when everyone seems to be relatively pleased, that's one down. we'll see how things are at that point. host: ed o'keefe, read his stories at "the washington post."com. one of his recent stories is about his maneuvering in the senate and he is writing extensively about gun issues. coming up next, documentary bloomberg reporter karen wise on student loan interest rates, which are set to double on july 1. patricia quinn, a development till pediatrician. she talks